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 ...
Best Headline of the week!
Damned retards have infiltrated the headline-writers community.
IAG R. DTS XEE NDAY
I guess I am having a stroke.....that headline.
Dyslexia
I’ve searched from here to Timbuktu for a headline like that.
DELORBLIAN DEKKLA A DA DA!!!!!
wow... headline written in... welsh?? /sarc
“OLRTXT SECUR ISLM POL REL DIP AID INSURG ML FR US WEU EMRG ZA” = “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine”
Very glad the headline was kept in tact. Otherwise it will be impossible to search for this article in the future!
If I only had a dollar for every time I've said that.
-PJ
Kitty steppin’ on your keyboard again?
I hope Europe secures their art and history before the Muslims overtake it, especially the Pieta.
HFUBdY ILNOT B TKIGDSHT FRM U WEU EMRG ISLM ZA
Gotta keep polling the Reuter’s site for headline updates for more news on this fast-changing breaking story.
HFUBdY
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