USC researchers crack 250-year-old code

Scientists from USC, in collaboration with researchers from Sweden’s Uppsala University, have decoded the Copiale Cipher, the university announced Oct. 25. The document is an 18th Century German manuscript comprising 75,000 characters in 105 pages. It details rituals performed by one of the many secret societies that flourished in the country in the 1700s.

Research Professor Kevin Knight of the Information Sciences Institute, a member of the team, said in a statement released to the Associated Press, “This opens up a window for people who study the history of ideas and the history of secret societies. Historians believe that secret societies have had a role in revolutions, but all that is yet to be worked out, and a big part of the reason is because so many documents are enciphered.”

The research team covered a total of 80 languages in its attempts to decipher the code, having started with the idea that the code lay in the Roman letters between the symbols. However, the members were finally able to find out that the abstract symbols were actually the key to the code. The research team combined high speed computation with their cerebral powers to successfully break the code.

Dr. Knight told the Los Angeles Times, “I defeated their security! For me, the fun is in cracking the code. It has passed through a lot of hands, but you persevered and could read what other people couldn’t.”