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5,000-Year-Old Treasure Rediscovered In Library Storage Room (Valdosta, Ga)
Valdosta.edu/News ^ | 10-19-2005 | Charles Harmon

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 5000; archaeology; ga; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; godsgravesglyphsm; history; library; old; rediscovered; room; storage; treasure; valdosta; year
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To: RightWingAtheist
Too much turntable rumble, as well as wow, to be able to separate the signal from the noise.

Not to mention the interference caused by his mild palsy...
41 posted on 10/19/2005 11:09:01 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Mohamophages of the world, unite!)
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To: SunkenCiv

How much tranlation can you get off a 1.5 inch piece of cuneiform?


42 posted on 10/20/2005 1:31:02 AM PDT by shuckmaster (Bring back SeaLion and ModernMan!)
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To: The Drowning Witch

Interesting.......


43 posted on 10/20/2005 3:11:18 AM PDT by Jackknife ( "I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him 'father'." —Will Rogers)
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To: blam

Have to check out that site and read the translations.


44 posted on 10/20/2005 4:02:39 AM PDT by Dustbunny (Main Stream Media -- Making 'Max Headroom' a reality.)
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To: Dustbunny

The link did not work. Well, so much for that idea.


45 posted on 10/20/2005 4:04:53 AM PDT by Dustbunny (Main Stream Media -- Making 'Max Headroom' a reality.)
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To: RightWingAtheist

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 :-).


46 posted on 10/20/2005 5:02:12 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Neither the depth of despondency nor the height of euphoria tells you how long either will last. ")
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To: Tax-chick

I was at Pompeii and Ephesus this summer. I'm dreaming about going back. It was incredible.


47 posted on 10/20/2005 5:09:13 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: RadioAstronomer

The Babylonians bought them used at a garage sale.


48 posted on 10/20/2005 5:11:46 AM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
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To: Conservativegreatgrandma

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.


49 posted on 10/20/2005 5:16:15 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Neither the depth of despondency nor the height of euphoria tells you how long either will last. ")
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To: Tax-chick

On this trip, Ephesus was my favorite with Pompeii being second. Athens and Corinth would have been third with Mykonos fourth.


50 posted on 10/20/2005 5:53:01 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: TR Jeffersonian

ping


51 posted on 10/20/2005 5:57:00 AM PDT by kalee
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To: FreedomCalls
Caution. Some are quite bawdy.

Along the same line, I once came across a reference to the sandals worn by some prostitutes – they had advertising cut into the soles of their sandals that would leave their name and address in their footprints.
52 posted on 10/20/2005 6:06:47 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: shuckmaster

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. :')


53 posted on 10/20/2005 6:07:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated by FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
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To: Conservativegreatgrandma

I just get to see the pictures!


54 posted on 10/20/2005 6:46:10 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Neither the depth of despondency nor the height of euphoria tells you how long either will last. ")
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To: RightWingAtheist
Heh, heh, heh. That's reminds me of something I read many years ago, about a wall that was excavated, that was divided into squares for use as a sort of classified advertisement system. Each square had multiple layers of messages, such as cattle for sale, job postings, etc. Anyway, one layer of one square had a message that roughly translated: "I am amazed that this wall has not collapsed under the weight of all the crap that has been put on it."
55 posted on 10/20/2005 9:20:57 AM PDT by Hegemony Cricket (Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof - usually by midmorning, or so.)
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To: RightWingAtheist

THANK YOU! I was trying just the other day to recall the name of that story! FR strikes again!


56 posted on 10/20/2005 9:22:27 AM PDT by Hegemony Cricket (Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof - usually by midmorning, or so.)
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To: Tax-chick
I am so grateful I was able to make the trip. It brought the era of Paul into focus. It was amazing. One of my favorite photos of Ephesus was of a pile of clay tile that had been excavated. We could also see the clay tile in the ground. The tile served as their water system. They had running water in their homes, as well as indoor toilets.

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.

57 posted on 10/20/2005 6:19:25 PM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: Conservativegreatgrandma

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!


58 posted on 10/20/2005 6:37:58 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Neither the depth of despondency nor the height of euphoria tells you how long either will last. ")
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To: Tax-chick
I've been to Rome twice. I love the flavor of Rome. Both times we've had great little hotels and have been able to walk many places.

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.

59 posted on 10/21/2005 5:49:38 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: Conservativegreatgrandma

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.


60 posted on 10/21/2005 6:27:57 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Neither the depth of despondency nor the height of euphoria tells you how long either will last. ")
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