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Gonzalo Rubio spends his days reading dead languages that haven't been spoken for thousands of years. An assyriologist at Pennsylvania State University, Rubio studies the world's very first written languages, Sumerian and Akkadian, which were used in ancient Mesopotamia (an area covering modern-day Iraq). Sumerian appeared first, almost 5,000 years ago around the year 3,100 B.C. This writing was scratched into soft clay tablets with a pointed reed that had been cut into a wedge shape. Archaeologists call this first writing "cuneiform," from the Latin "cuneus," meaning wedge. Sumerian and Akkadian were the languages of the ancient Mesopotamian civilization, which...

A cuneiform clay tablet that has puzzled scholars for over 150 years has been translated for the first time. The tablet is now known to be a contemporary Sumerian observation of an asteroid impact at Köfels, Austria and is published in a new book, 'A Sumerian Observation of the Köfels' Impact Event.' The giant landslide centred at Köfels in Austria is 500m thick and five kilometres in diameter and has long been a mystery since geologists first looked at it in the 19th century. The conclusion drawn by research in the middle 20th century was that it must be...

British scientists have deciphered a mysterious ancient clay tablet and believe they have solved a riddle over a giant asteroid impact more than 5,000 years ago. Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Köfels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid. Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth - which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths. The circular clay tablet was discovered 150...

Veenker, a retired Assyriologist whose specialty is old Babylonian cuneiform writing, learned about Buie's tablet in August. Buie says he got the tablet from one of his tenants... Buie and the tenant - whom he identified only as Eddie - hope to sell it and split the proceeds... Veenker said a wealthy donor bought the tablet from a dealer in New York City around 1901. In all, the donor bought a collection of 400 artifacts for Haverford College near Philadelphia. In 1962, the collection was transferred to the Oriental Institute in Chicago with an inventory list, Veenker said. "Best I...

Introduction - Investigations of Bolivia Fuente Magna and the Monolith of Pokotia The following material is reprinted by permission from Bernardo Biadós Yacovazzo & Freddy Arce, OIIB - Omega Institute Investigations (Bolivia), INTI - NonGovernmental Organizacion (Bolivia). A large stone vessel, resembling a libation bowl, and now known as the Fuente Magna, was originally discovered in a rather casual fashion by a country peasant from the ex-hacienda CHUA, property of the Manjon family situated in the surrounding areas of Lake Titicaca about 75/80 km from the city of La Paz. The site where it was found has not been...

...my friends like Asko Parpola, Professor Mahadevan, and the Russians Professors who have worked on this subject. They have all been working on the assumption that the language of the Indus people was Dravidian, that the people who build the Indus Civilization are Dravidian. But unfortunately I, as well as my friend Prof. B.B. Lal in India, have not been able to agree with this... On the other hand, I have been talking to Prof. Parpola that certainly this is an agglutinative language, there is no doubt. That has been accepted by all of us. Dravidian is an agglutinative language....

Posted on Mon, Jul. 22, 2002 Key to an ancient tongue Penn archaeologists have puzzled over the cuneiform writings for decades. At last, a Sumerian dictionary may be ready by 2004. By Faye Flam Inquirer Staff Writer Steve Tinney and Tonia Sharlach hold cuneiform tablets from the collection at Penn’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The two Sumerologists are working on the 30-year dictionary project. The people known as Sumerians are credited with starting the first civilization and building the first settlements worthy of being called cities. They also invented writing, and then they wrote and wrote and wrote, filling...

Online dictionary helps unravel Sumerian language Digital technology facilitates research Kyle Cassidy Special to The Daily Star Scholars studying ancient writing systems to reconstruct the societies they belonged to are increasingly turning to digital dictionaries in an effort to accelerate their work. Among the institutions taking advantage of the considerable benefits offered by the digitizing process is the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which is drawing on the latest digital technology to write a Sumerian dictionary. Four thousand years ago, in the Sumerian city of Nippur, scribes were attending classes to learn a relatively new and privileged...

. "Look, it's a no-brainer because, unless you know for a fact this Sumerian piece has been in some English lord's collection for years, you can bet you're probably trading with Saddam Hussein and it's probably all stolen stuff with cooked-up, fake provenances. As a museum director, don't even bother with it, just hands off." FORT WORTH _ The Kimbell Art Museum is working to recover $2.7 million from a New York antiquities dealer after returning what was advertised as a rare Sumerian statue that the Kimbell bought last year, according to sources familiar with the transaction. Museum officials would...

Shock and Awe Begins--We Explain its Occult Meaning 21-Mar-2003 introduction by Whitley Strieber As bombers began taking off from aircraft carriers, from bases in Kuwait and elsewhere, and B-52s that started from England hours ago began to arrive over Iraq, the Pentagon announced that 'Shock and Awe' had begun. But did you know that this phrase has potent occult meaning? According to leading mythologist William Henry, Shock and Awe relates to the ancient Hebrew phrase Shak-In-Ah, meaning glory. SHOCK ‘n AWE (SHAK-IN-AH): WE WILL ROCK YOU by William Henry march-21-2003 A battle between the ancient forces of light (TARA) and...