Egyptological running-key texts with a columnar transposition (widths 5 to 11)
Egypt corpus x columnar transposition sweep (widths 5-11, 3 variants, 9 corpora)
In plain English: Egypt corpus x columnar transposition sweep (widths 5-11, 3 variants, 9 corpora), using a combined approach: scramble the letter order AND replace each letter. A consistency check this search used to discard candidates was later found invalid for it, so this result no longer rules the method out.
NOISE
Tier 3
How to read this record
- Verdict – ELIMINATED (ruled out within the tested scope), NOISE (nothing beyond what chance produces for a search of this size; also shown when a record stored no verdict of its own), INCONCLUSIVE (the test left candidates or options standing, or could not decide, so it does not rule the method out), INTERESTING (slightly above random, almost certainly coincidence), SIGNAL (statistically unusual, warrants investigation), or FULL MATCH (all 24 known letters correct).
- Confidence Tier – Tier 1 = mathematical proof, valid while its stated assumptions hold. Tier 2 = every possibility within the stated scope tested. Tier 3 = partially tested or sampled. Tier 4 = not yet properly tested.
- Configs Tested – How many different key/parameter combinations were tried.
- Best Score – How many of the 24 known plaintext letters the best attempt matched (out of 24). N/A means no such score could be read from this record.
- Keystream Consistency (Bean) – Whether the key values at different positions are mathematically consistent with each other. The check only holds when the known letters stay in their carved positions (no letters rearranged or removed), and the full set used here assumes the standard A to Z alphabet.
- Scope Limitations – What this elimination does not rule out.
- Configs Tested
- N/A
- Best Score
- N/A
- Keystream Consistency (Bean)
-
NOT APPLICABLE Corrected 2026-08-24. This experiment applies a transposition, which moves the known-plaintext positions. The stored Bean check compared the result against constants derived for the unmoved arrangement, so any “failure” it reported was an artifact of the mismatch rather than a fact about K4. The check is withdrawn for this page. Because the search used it to throw out candidates, it may have discarded valid ones, so this search no longer rules the method out.
- Confidence
- Tier 3: Partial or statistical. May warrant re-testing under different assumptions.
- Truth Tag
[INTERNAL RESULT]- Script
scripts/transposition/columnar/e_egypt_01_columnar_sweep.py
Scope Limitations
This elimination does not rule out:
- Not exhaustive. Before any source text was checked, the keystream-consistency (Bean) filter, withdrawn on 2026-08-24 because it does not apply once letters are rearranged, discarded at least 95% of the 44M column orderings for widths 5-11, so most of this space was never tested. Standard A-Z alphabet only. Does not test width >= 12, non-columnar transpositions, or non-Egyptological source texts.
Assumptions
- Model A: CT[sigma(j)] = Enc(PT[j], Source[j+offset])
- Columnar transposition
- Running key from Egyptological corpus
- Vigenere/Beaufort/VB
Related Research Questions
Reproduce
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -u scripts/transposition/columnar/e_egypt_01_columnar_sweep.pyRequires the kryptos repo, Python 3.11+, PYTHONPATH=src. Some recent scripts may not be in the public repository yet.
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