Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. This article has some interesting description of a cuneiform library.
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To: wideminded
Experts described the archive as the world's least-studied large collection of cuneiform -- the oldest known writing on Earth -- a record that covers every aspect of Mesopotamian life over more than 3,000 years. The texts resided in numbered boxes each containing as many as 400 3-inch-by-2-inch tablets. That's what cd burners are for. Scan em in, burn em, and if you lose the originals you still have memorex.
2 posted on
04/18/2003 2:13:51 AM PDT by
chance33_98
(www.hannahmore.com -- Shepherd Of Salisbury Plain is online, more to come! (my website))
To: wideminded
This is more than probably propaganda/lies.
3 posted on
04/18/2003 2:15:48 AM PDT by
nopardons
To: wideminded
4 posted on
04/18/2003 2:21:25 AM PDT by
Oldeconomybuyer
(The democRATS are near the tipping point.)
To: wideminded
You mean to tell me that all this time no one has bothered to photograph or record the writing ?
Archeologists meet data storage and retrieval systems ..... data storage meet archeologists.
5 posted on
04/18/2003 2:25:36 AM PDT by
Centurion2000
(We are crushing our enemies, seeing him driven before us and hearing the lamentations of the liberal)
To: wideminded
Saadam's regime:
murdered people
raped women
imprisoned children
starved its own population
stole billions of dollars
But the media always says its the "looters" who destroyed the museums. It's as if the Bathe party had the right moral compass when it came to Art appreciation.
To: lindsay; mvonfr; Fifth Business
Pinging...
To: wideminded
FNC and others are reporting that a lot of these treasures (not nec. these tablets) are turning up in Paris.
13 posted on
04/18/2003 2:41:44 AM PDT by
Ed_in_NJ
To: wideminded
Hmmmm....cuniform archives that are thousands of years old or Freedom of Millions upon Millions of innocent people?
Why do these idiots always try to associate some sort of cost to Human Dignity beyond the battle to free them?
Freedom was already paid for with the blood of our dearest. Now millions of Iraqis are freed from the evil perpauted upon them by an insanely evil dictator. Triuphant over their newfound liberty, they are jubilant and dancing in the streets while destroying any trace of the evil left behind.
Now some idiot crawls out from under a rock and says "Hey...you broke that!"
17 posted on
04/18/2003 4:31:40 AM PDT by
Caipirabob
(Democrats.. Socialists..Commies..Traitors...Who can tell the difference?)
To: wideminded
I remember Cuneiforms. Those were those plastic stick-ons we used to play with as kids, right?
To: wideminded
I hope they find them. These tablets give details about life in Sumer and Akkad which hit their peak culturally about 4-5 thousand years ago.
Interestingly a very good collection of artifacts and also the staff who actually successfully began the translation of "Cuneiform B" are located at the Philadelphia Museum. Neat stuff; saw it on tour.
Regards,
24 posted on
04/18/2003 6:26:51 AM PDT by
Jimmy Valentine
(DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
To: wideminded; All
A couple points of clarification regarding the article.
First, we don't know how much of their 100,000+ cuneiform texts collection was looted or destroyed. The article makes it sound like the whole collection was pillaged. It is clear that there was some loss through destruction and pilfering, but it's unclear how much.
Second, the article makes it sound like cuneiform tablets were routinely baked after being inscribed. In fact, only a small percentage of cuneiform tablets were baked. Important texts were commonly baked, and many tablets have been baked unintentionally by ancient palaces being burned down. But the vast majority of tablets remain unbaked and are in very fragile condition. If not handled with great care, they will be destroyed.
Now I have a question for you all. Did the US military intend to or attempt to secure this museum upon entering Baghdad? A statement by the in-field commanding general on Thursday made it sound like they attempted to but couldn't because the enemy was literally entrenched on the museum property. But other information I've heard seems to contradict that. I'd like to hear the official story, instead of getting dismissive answers like Rumsfeld gave.
To: wideminded
As Colonel Hunt said, all of the priceless artifacts together are NOT worth ONE of our TROOPS life. Without a bit of hesitation I TOTALLY AGREE with him.
26 posted on
04/18/2003 7:27:02 AM PDT by
PISANO
To: wideminded
the key word here is MAY HAVE.
There is no evidence that they are missing or that they have been destroyed, or that their pictures and descriptions have not been recorded.
28 posted on
04/18/2003 7:59:18 AM PDT by
vannrox
(The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
To: wideminded
All memories of FAILED Culture
30 posted on
04/18/2003 8:46:01 AM PDT by
bmwcyle
(Semper Gumby - Always flexible)
To: wideminded
Why no outrage from the left when Sink Squirter Bill and Hitlery Rotten looted the White House of antique furniture and other historical items?
35 posted on
04/18/2003 10:41:59 AM PDT by
jimbo123
To: wideminded
At least these things are priceless...what if they were worth real money?
37 posted on
04/18/2003 11:13:36 AM PDT by
woofie
To: wideminded
Meanwhile, Dr. Daniel Jackson is on suicide watch.
To: wideminded
It is all relative. How long do you think the USA will continue to be as we know it now? 100 years, 500 years, 1,000 years, 10,000 years? Yes they would be nice to have, but Priceless???
In the end the sun will eventually destroy our solarsystem in it's death throes and unless we have been able as a people to move on to another solarsystem in this galaxy or another, there will be nothing to indicate we ever existed? Priceless? I don't know.
To: wideminded
Since when is it news that something "may have" happened?
To: wideminded
Well, no matter how you look at it, it sucks that this happened. However, the tablets that were broken and left can be put back together and read....I mean, that's what archeologists do.The tablets that were stolen will most likely - eventually - resurface.
Had we the choice between stolen intact, or broken and left on the floor, I would have chosen the latter over the former.
Either way, it's unlikely that much of the collection's information will be permanently lost.
Still....it does suck. There's no getting around that.
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