Posted on 01/30/2013 2:05:48 PM PST by posterchild
Bulk of Timbuktu manuscripts survived occupation
DAKAR (Reuters) - The majority of Timbuktu's ancient manuscripts appear to be safe and undamaged after the Saharan city's 10-month occupation by Islamist rebel fighters, experts said on Wednesday, rejecting some media reports of their widespread destruction.
Denying accounts that told of tens of thousands of priceless papers being burned or stolen by the fleeing rebels, they said the bulk of the Timbuktu texts had been safely hidden well before the city's liberation by French forces on Sunday.
Brittle, written in ornate calligraphy, and ranging from scholarly treatises to old commercial invoices, the Timbuktu texts represent a compendium of human knowledge on everything from law, sciences and medicine to history and politics. Some experts compare them in importance to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
News that they were mostly safe, from people directly involved with conservation of the texts, was a relief to the world's cultural community, which had been dismayed by the prospect of a large-scale loss.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hey! How'd you get my FR password?
-PJ
Pls cnsrv vwls. Wr rnng ot!
Who wrote that headline? A DRUNKEN cat?...............
On the serious side, I’ll believe the texts are mostly OK when I find out who the “experts” are. “Expert al Quida” would put a bit of a dent in the credibility. But I am hopeful. The people who care about them there are shrewd enough to hide them when the barbarians were still outside the gate.
(I thought you were teasing us with the headline, but that’s exactly what it is at the source!)
Harumph! If the actual intended title had been written above and in English,
it's more likely that the Cymraeg version would read:
Swmp O Lawysgrifau Timbuktu Goroesi Galwedigaeth
(from the sub-title on the site : "Bulk of Timbuktu manuscripts survived occupation ")
Good one.
...they squilookle when they should nureek. If they’re going to keep her up all night, they could at least do it properly!
Authentic frontier gibberish.
I’d like to buy a vowel...and maybe an extra consonant or two.
The Welsh makes more sense than the typical milspec message gibberish employed for the headline.
Translation:
“Captain Kidd’s treasure is buried 12 feet under the west entrance of parking lot D next to the Carolina Hurricanes’ hockey stadium.”
bump
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