The first reading, “What the Heck is Cuneiform, Anyway?” by Anne Trubek was a fascinating read for two reasons: 1) Before reading it, the only thing I knew about cuneiform was that it was symbols drawn on clay stones/tablets and 2) the article offers an interesting parallel between cuneiform and current media technology. One of the interesting things I learned in the article was how the cuneiform code was cracked (translated). I am now curious about this tendency to offer language decoders in threes. Trubek compares the cuneiform translation discovery to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone; the cuneiform translation featured the same writing in Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian, while the Rosetta stone had the same text in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. This similarity intrigues me very much. I’m also intrigued by the two comparisons Trubek makes between cuneiform and iPhones. First, she says that cuneiform is often found on clay iPhone sized tablets; later, she compares cuneiform tablets to iPhones in that they are both “cool, hard, palm-sized tablets onto which receipts, notes, messages, and even great works of literature are written and read.”
The second two readings–“A Note on the Hieroglyphs [unknown] and [unknown]” by Ludwig Keimer and “Deciphering Maya Glyphs” in ushistory.org–discuss controversies or discoveries made by analyzing Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mayan Glyphs. The Keimer article corrects mistaken assumptions about two hieroglyphics and their meaning (and the birds they are thought to represent). The interesting maneuver that Keimer makes is considering the migratory patterns of birds in the analysis of the meaning of glyphs depicting birds. While the ushistory.org article describes horrific colonization (whereby the colonizers destroyed the artifacts of the colonized (Mayans)). It also describes the altered history uncovered in translating Mayan stone tablet carvings. These translations challenge the old belief that the Mayans were peaceful and replaced these ideas with accounts of war and conflict.
***
Comments about creative process for cave painting assignment:
I forgot to mention in my last blog that I have painted over a styrofoam circle (used for floral arrangements and crafty things) in red in order to pretend it is a discovery from Colorado (red rocks). I haven’t decided if I’m going to do a cave painting or a petroglyph on it.
Comments about creative process for hieroglyphs assignment:
None yet. We haven’t been assigned this project yet.