Across the globe, a race is under way to crack some of the last mysterious forms of writing that have never been translated.

Since farmers began digging up ancient bone fragments in the fields around the Yellow River in eastern China over 100 years ago, researchers have been poring over the mysterious script found on them.

Nurtured by the alluvial planes of the Indus river, the Indus Valley hosted one of the world's oldest urban cultures. From ...