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'Earliest Writing' Found In China
BBC ^
| 4-17-2003
| Paul Rincon
Posted on 04/18/2003 9:35:03 AM PDT by blam
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1
posted on
04/18/2003 9:35:03 AM PDT
by
blam
To: blam
Scrimshaw.
2
posted on
04/18/2003 9:43:53 AM PDT
by
Consort
(Use only un-hyphenated words when posting.)
To: blam
Man! Those are some of the deadest people I've ever seen. Wonder what the inscription said? Hmmm..."symbols that resemble the characters for "eye" and "window" and the numerals eight and 20"...maybe it's a recipt from an early form of 'drive thru' instructing the purchaser to look for the cashier in the window and pick up their 8 egg rolls and 20 crab rangoons?
3
posted on
04/18/2003 10:22:16 AM PDT
by
Lee Heggy
(Tastes like chicken.)
To: Lee Heggy
They were obviously NOT booing Michael Moore.
4
posted on
04/18/2003 10:24:52 AM PDT
by
MP5
To: blam
It's been a long time and I've forgotten the technical terms.
But weren't small containers with external markings indicating their contents used for a very long time in commercial transactions in Mesopotamia prior to the invention of writing? From something like 8000 to 4000 B.C.?
To: Lee Heggy
"Man! Those are some of the deadest people I've ever seen. Wonder what the inscription said? Hmmm..."symbols that resemble the characters for "eye" and "window" and the numerals eight and 20"...maybe it's a recipt from an early form of 'drive thru' instructing the purchaser to look for the cashier in the window and pick up their 8 egg rolls and 20 crab rangoons?"Some Freepers may not appreciate your sense of humor but I found this funny as hell!
6
posted on
04/18/2003 10:38:57 AM PDT
by
albee
To: liberallarry
7
posted on
04/18/2003 10:45:48 AM PDT
by
blam
To: Lee Heggy
Heh. Well done. My surprise here is that people had windows eight thousand years ago, and evidently got it to run.
8
posted on
04/18/2003 11:58:40 AM PDT
by
gcruse
(The F word, N word, C word: We're well on our way to spelling 'France.')
To: blam
Dated how? Carbon dating of remains found in graves? (If so, I suppose it's theoretically possible that the writings were put in the graves later.)
To: aristeides
Couldn't they date the turtle shell directly?
Look for a 'use by' date on it somewhere.
10
posted on
04/18/2003 12:02:45 PM PDT
by
gcruse
(The F word, N word, C word: We're well on our way to spelling 'France.')
To: gcruse
That would be Windows 8000? Should be just about finished booting up by now...nope the little hourglass thing is still there...
11
posted on
04/18/2003 12:19:04 PM PDT
by
Lee Heggy
(Tastes like chicken.)
To: Lee Heggy
Hmmm. An hourglass. Another anachronistic anomaly. There's more to this ark-yew-ology, as the White House calls it, than it thought.
12
posted on
04/18/2003 12:22:08 PM PDT
by
gcruse
(The F word, N word, C word: We're well on our way to spelling 'France.')
To: Lee Heggy
It translates into "I am so F'ng tired of rice"
13
posted on
04/18/2003 12:24:16 PM PDT
by
Dead Dog
To: blam
One of the things which makes the Chinese formidable is their long sense of history (rightly placed or not). They look ahead decades, and Americans only look ahead to the next election cycle (or sports season).
To: warchild9
Or the next fiscal quarter. Yes, we are typically shortsighted, especially when we are so evenly divided politically that either side can come into power and wreck the previous one's agenda on the whim of a sliver of the voters.
15
posted on
04/18/2003 12:39:43 PM PDT
by
gcruse
(The F word, N word, C word: We're well on our way to spelling 'France.')
To: blam
The Neolithic markings include symbols that resemble the characters for "eye" and "window" and the numerals eight and 20 in the Shang script.H'm. Could be a mathematical equation, that when solved, openes up the window of heaven and the eye descends to reveal the mysteries of the universe and the inhabitants of the world are led into a Utopian peace.
16
posted on
04/18/2003 12:45:17 PM PDT
by
Luna
(Evil will not triumph...God is at the helm)
To: Luna
I see.
17
posted on
04/18/2003 12:54:45 PM PDT
by
gcruse
(The F word, N word, C word: We're well on our way to spelling 'France.')
To: liberallarry
I remember something like "bola" or "boola". The theory was that writing evolved from bills of lading.
The seller would put small tokens of different shapes inside a sealed clay pot. The buyer would break the pot to compare with the arrived shipment (animals, grain, etc.).
The theory is that, in order to know the correct shipment along the way - without breaking open the container - impressions of the tokens were made on the outside of the container.
It was a short step from there to realizing you don't need the container any more.
I believe this is what you're talking about. It was the work of a profesor at the University of Texas at Austin.
18
posted on
04/18/2003 1:29:11 PM PDT
by
D-fendr
.
19
posted on
04/18/2003 5:38:16 PM PDT
by
firewalk
To: D-fendr
Yeah, that's exactly it. Is that work still valid?
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