Posted on 10/19/2005 4:21:03 PM PDT by blam
Charles Harmon
Director of University Relations
Sementha Mathews
Manager of Public Information and Media Relations
5,000-year-old treasure rediscovered in library storage room
Dr. Melanie Byrd, professor and coordinator of planning and program review in the History Department, holds a piece of the treasure in the palm of her hand. Valdosta State University Odum Library has uncovered an ancient treasure that excites even the mildest Indiana Jones wanna-be.
The treasure is a collection of 5,000-year-old Babylonian cuneiform clay tablets, dating back from 2300 BC to 500 BC. Cuneiform is one of several writing systems of the ancient East, in which wedge-shaped impressions were made in soft clay tablets. These tablets, delicate in nature, literally fit in the palm of one’s hand, measuring only 1.5 inches squared.
Dr. Richard Holmes Powell, first president of South Georgia State Normal College (now VSU) acquired a collection of ten of these tablets from Edgar Banks, an archaeologist working in Iraq in the early 20th century. Powell intended the tablets to provide learning opportunities for the school’s students; however, over the years, the tablets remained preserved in a library storage room. It wasn’t until a few years ago, that the tablets were found by Deborah Davis, Archivist. In an effort to make them available to the public without frequent handling, the tablets were scanned and made available for viewing on the web, even though, no one could interpret the inscriptions.
Before long, Cale Johnson, a cuneiform scholar from UCLA, saw the tablets on the web and offered to translate them. Through his translations, many things can be studied about this ancient time of history. A detailed interpretation of these tablets and an explanation of their significance can be found at http://books.valdosta.edu/arch/Babylonian/babylonian.htm .
Odum Library Archivist Deborah Davis opens ten small boxes, each containing a unique historical clay tablet. Davis said these tablets are some of the earliest samples of writing, but just as important, they reveal a significant part of business exchange, religion, medicine, etc., of ancient everyday life. “And now, we have a part of it,” said Davis.
For more information, contact Davis at 333-7150 or dsdavis@valdosta.edu.
How much tranlation can you get off a 1.5 inch piece of cuneiform?
Interesting.......
Have to check out that site and read the translations.
The link did not work. Well, so much for that idea.
My mother just left for Italy yesterday, and I think her tour includes Pompeii (again). That's such an amazing place. Romans wrote everything on the walls, just like people stick notices on the telephone poles around here :-).
I was at Pompeii and Ephesus this summer. I'm dreaming about going back. It was incredible.
The Babylonians bought them used at a garage sale.
Mom's has been to Ephesus, when she did "Greece, the Islands, and Turkey." She said it was the neatest thing on that trip. Her current tour is Sicily and Corsica, with stops at Rome and Pompeii, just because they're close, I suppose.
On this trip, Ephesus was my favorite with Pompeii being second. Athens and Corinth would have been third with Mykonos fourth.
ping
Caution. Some are quite bawdy.
http://www.ancientscripts.com/cuneiform.html
"The truth is that cuneiform denotes not one but several kinds of writing systems, including logo-syllabic, syllabic, and alphabetic scripts."
Ugaritic cuneiform appears to have been the only alphabetic cuneiform, and limited in geographic area (one site, Ras Shamra, on the Mediterranean coast). The rest are quite economical in the number of symbols needed to write a word, but extravagant in the number of symbols used overall. :')
I just get to see the pictures!
THANK YOU! I was trying just the other day to recall the name of that story! FR strikes again!
There was a domed roof still standing. I think the mortar was superior because of the ash.
Nevertheless, it was a very prosperous, advanced civilization.
My boys are very interested in Rome and Biblical history. They find all kinds of examples of advanced technology in their books.
I'm very happy for your opportunity to travel to the Mediterranean. Someday I'll be retired!
I found the Vatican interesting and love the museums, etc. but if I find myself back in Rome someday, I'll pass on the Vatican.
It strikes me as somewhat claustrophic with all the people. It is also usually very hot.
Mom said she'll take me to Rome when she's 75 (2013). We went to Amsterdam for a week when she was 65, which was cool.
My parents have spend a lot of time in Italy, and seen just about everything. My brother lived there 4 years, and now he's in his 6th year in England.
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