Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe

nationalgeographic.com ^ | Published March 30, 2011 | Ker Than

[ApplegateRanch]

Considered "magical or mysterious" in its time, the writing survives only because a trash heap caught fire some 3,500 years ago, according to researchers.

---

Was the offending scribe fined 10 drachmas for throwing it into the trash, rrather than the recycle bin?

That was perfectly good, reusable dried clay, until the idiot fired it. Did he think there was an inexhaustable supply of suitable clay, just for the digging?

Did he not realize that that such thoughtless waste, if all the scribes did the same, would cause the premature closing of the local landfill thus necessitating the hauling of trash (at increased expense) farther to a new location?

[Robwin]

Sometimes people who devote their lives to studying a subject actually know something about it.

Do you think the "experts" in the late 1800's who "devote[d] their lives to studying a subject actually [knew} something about it"?

I suggest you take your observations to Heinrich Schliemann. No doubt he will be glad to hear them.

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	Thanks Red Badger. Excellent find, sort of an update to: [2009] "This dig is at Iklaina, not at Pylos itself -- the palace at Pylos was discovered as long ago as 1939." Thanks ApplegateRanch for the smart remarks. :') All seriousness aside, the usual way for an ancient clay tablet with writing to make it all the way to the present is to have the archive building (often the entire town) burned down in ancient times, as happened with the Mari archive. The cheap bastards who ran the scribal services back then would otherwise have kept reusing the same tablets over and over, never firing them to make them permanent. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·

[Flag_This]

I remember it like it was yesterday - I was interviewing king Nebuchadnezzar about those annoying Israelites when I dropped my notes.

[Ramius]

Well... some things can surprise from time to time. But I agree with the basic point that we do tend to terribly underestimate the technological prowess of ancient cultures. I think there’s been some ‘surprisingly’ sophisticated societies going much further back than is often supposed.

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops! And thanks BenLurkin!

[Beowulf9]

Obvious. 1. A man lying down on a pillow. 2. An oil well. 3. A tv antenna. It's about the increase in wealth in a country once they tap into their own natural resources!

[Domestic Church]

Santorini certainly would have cooked this tablet to well done!

[SunkenCiv]

There's a new article about Iklaina that purports to reveal new discoveries. It's apparent that there's no one new thing in the whole article, but it makes a nice pretext for an updated ping message and such. This topic is from 2011.

• Pylos excavation findings make Greek archaeologists revise beliefs on Mycenaean Era civilization

and from the FRchives:

• Archaeology meets mythology in Mycenean Pylos (King Nestor)
• The Birth of Bureaucracy (Where Long Lines, Red Tape & Arcane Rules Began; 1650 to 1100 B.C.)

[Rebelbase]

Archaeological dumpster diving.

5000 years from now future archaeologists will record our history from garbage dumps. “The culture was obsessed with an inedible, white synthetic peanut and sheets of synthetic bubbles of nothing but air and the most disturbing find of all were padded wrappers with mummified feces inside....

[ZULU]

It says “MAGA”!!!! Vote Trump!!!!”