Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen was a Danish linguist and Turkologist. He successfully deciphered the Orkhon inscriptions which were discovered during the expedition of Nikolai Yadrintsev in 1889.

The Orkhon inscriptions are two memorial installations erected by the Göktürks written in the Old Turkic alphabet in the early 8th century in the Orkhon Valley in what is modern-day Mongolia. They were erected in honor of two Turkic princes, Kul Tigin and his brother Bilge Khagan.