Posted on 01/02/2015 3:24:34 PM PST by BenLurkin
An ancient, two-sided amulet uncovered in Cyprus contains a 59-letter inscription that reads the same backwards as it does forwards.
Archaeologists discovered the amulet, which is roughly 1,500 years old, at the ancient city of Nea Paphos in southwest Cyprus.
One side of the amulet has several images, including a bandaged mummy (likely representing the Egyptian god Osiris) lying on a boat and an image of Harpocrates, the god of silence, who is shown sitting on a stool while holding his right hand up to his lips. Strangely, the amulet also displays a mythical dog-headed creature called a cynocephalus, which is shown holding a paw up to its lips, as if mimicking Harpocrates' gesture.
On the other side of the amulet is an inscription, written in Greek, that reads the same backwards as it does forwards, making it a palindrome. It reads:
ΙΑΕW
ΒΑΦΡΕΝΕΜ
ΟΥΝΟΘΙΛΑΡΙ
ΚΝΙΦΙΑΕΥΕ
ΑΙΦΙΝΚΙΡΑΛ
ΙΘΟΝΥΟΜΕ
ΝΕΡΦΑΒW
ΕΑΙ
This translates to "Iahweh(a god)is the bearer of the secret name, the lion of Re secure in his shrine."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
FUBO!
That is one of the longest ones I have ever seen.
The classic is: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.
The odd name of the deity referred to here... very similar to the Hebrew name for God.
That name, however, makes sense only in Hebrew as a form of “I am.” It has no meaning in Greek.
A kind of early syncretism?
There is also Napoleon’s lament: Able was I ere I saw Elba.
I was thinking it might be a hoax. Maybe SunkenCiv can shed some light on it.
Saw this on the History Blog, my favorite destination aside from Free Republic:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/date/2015/01
A weird take on Christian claims... a very weird one.
I was thinking it might be a hoax. Maybe SunkenCiv can shed some light on it.The jury's still out on it, first the artifact has to be detartrated.
You inscribe “Able was I ere I saw Elba” once, just once, and you *never* hear the end of it.
> Palindromes date back at least to 79 AD, as a palindrome was found as a graffito at Herculaneum, a city buried by ash in that year. This palindrome, called the Sator Square, consists of a sentence written in Latin: “Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas” (”The sower Arepo holds with effort the wheels”).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome#History
Mr. Praline: I understand this IS Bolton.
Owner: (still with the fake mustache) Yes?
Mr. Praline: You told me it was Ipswitch!
Owner: ...It was a pun.
Mr. Praline: (pause) A PUN?!?
Owner: No, no...not a pun...What’s that thing that spells the same backwards as forwards?
Mr. Praline: (Long pause) A palindrome...?
Owner: Yeah, that’s it!
Mr. Praline: It’s not a palindrome! The palindrome of “Bolton” would be “Notlob”!! It don’t work!!
WOW
“And take back one kadam to honor the Hebrew God, whose ark this is.”
They’re digging in the wrong place!
One amulet doesn’t tell us much either.
Don’t forget the first man upon meeting Eve: Madam, I am Adam.
Whoops, that should be: Madam, I’m Adam.
The inscription may be written in Greek characters, but none of the words in it appear to be actual classical Greek words. Not a single one of them is in my classical Greek lexicon, and the formation and the word-endings do not make sense.
I’m avoiding this story because I suffer from aibohphobia (fear of palindromes).
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