Words @ Tablets
Personal Cosmic Game
|
|
Words @ TabletsPersonal Cosmic Game |
|
Words Win, 8-6
Did the Akkadian scribes of Tell Leilan realize that four thousand years after they scribbled on their tablets that their handiwork would be unearthed and described by archaeologists for clues to the chronology (& meaning) of life (& civilization) on planet Earth?
It is remarkable that the Tell Leilan archive has survived the passage of time and the other forces of nature. The fact that this ancient archive survived and became of interest to inquiring minds is the inspiration for this particular personal cosmic baseball game.
Lauren Ristvet is a good example of a contemporary inquiring mind. Referred to by her aunt [at the "crackpot chronicles" as]...one of the brightest and best of the younger generation...] Ristvet has helped excavate the ancient Akkadian tablets that comprise the home team for this game. Her knowledge in this area is based on her archaeological work in the Near East.
...[A] one-room house was uncovered with a doorway to the street. Most of this house was destroyed by a large modern pit, rendering excavation difficult. In the northwestern corner of the room, a stack of fragmented Akkadian school texts and one administrative text (studied by L. Milano) was on the floor. (Lauren Ristvet, Thomas Guilderson and Harvey Weiss, "The Dynamics of State Development and Imperialization at Third Millennium Tell Leilan, Syria": 2004).
Lucio Milano is another example of the contemporary inquiring mind that seeks buried wisdom. His research activity bears on the history of Syria-Mesopotamia in the III and II millennia. His main projects concern economic history (history and technology of food and cuisine), philology (publication of III millennium, and especially Ebla texts) and lexicography (administrative Ebla lexikon).
Knowledge of the past leads to wisdom in the future and forever the present remains.
The ancient tablets were excavated by archaeologists in 2002. The schoolroom tablets were likely created around 2300 BCE. Archaeologists conclude that the tablets were created during a period when the area was under the influence of a strong Akkadian- organized economic imperialism.
The schoolroom's dimensions are 4.83 by 4.35 meters and its construction is in the typical Akkadian brick style. (Square bricks measuring 35 by 35 by 8 or 9 centimeters). The exciting discovery of the tablets in the schoolroom confirmed the existence of an imperial domain ruled by the Akkadians in the 3rd millennium. Historians and scholars were however for many years apparently baffled at the rapid demise of this civilization in the northern Mesopotamia region of the Near East. The end of the Akkadian empire was sudden.
Sometimes you do need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing.
Scientists, including archaeologists, paleoclimatologists and others realized that the empire's rapid collapse was caused by a dramatic shift in the region's climate. Mother nature, as it were, was responsible for the dramatic demise of Akkadian imperial civilization more than four thousand years ago.
Akkadian Schoolroom TabletThis new outlook suggests, for instance, that the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia may have been one of the earliest complex societies felled by severe drought. The Akkadian Empire was established around 2300 B.C., linking rain-fed agricultural fields in northern Mesopotamia with irrigation agriculture in the south. The empire stretched from the present-day Persian Gulf into Turkey before it abruptly collapsed less than 200 years later.
By 2170 B.C., archaeological records document a mass exodus from the north, with settlements abandoned and refugees pouring into southern Mesopotamia. Excavations at one of these settlements, Tell Leilan, show that the collapse is marked by a thick layer of windblown dust without any artifacts. Three hundred years later, smaller and more nomadic groups finally ventured north again. Researchers found the same telltale signature of drought in a deep-sea sediment core drilled from the Gulf of Oman. The core documents a dramatic 300-year period of windblown dust that could be dated to roughly the same period as the Akkadian collapse. Chemical traces in the dust allowed the scientists to pinpoint its origins in Mesopotamia.
Are the words needed to advance culture and civilization more central to unearthing the wisdom of the past than decoding which way the wind does or does not blow? This personal cosmic baseball game suggests the answer is yes.
|
|||||
Scorecard
Top
01-20-2007 21:52:40 Lineup: Words Amanuensis C Factotum CF Diffident SS Platonic 3B Ort 2B Socratic 1B Syllogism RF Puerile LF Metadata P Lineup: Tablets L02-45 3B L02-44 2B L02-39 1B L02-07 LF L02-19 RF L02-20 C L02-18 CF L02-06 SS L02-21 P Inn. 1: Words [Starter] L02-21 Amanuensis 8 . . . Factotum 1B . . X Diffident BB . X X Platonic 7 . X X Ort 6-3 X X . Inn. 1: Tablets [Starter] Metadata L02-45 BB . . X L02-44 4-6-3 DP . . . L02-39 2B . X . L02-07 5-3 . X . Inn. 2: Words Socratic 1B . . X Syllogism 9 . . X Puerile BB . X X Metadata 2-3 SAC X X . Amanuensis 1B . . X 2 Factotum 2B . X . 1 Diffident 7 . X . Inn. 2: Tablets L02-19 6 . . . L02-20 8 . . . L02-18 7 . . . Inn. 3: Words Platonic 7 . . . Ort 2B . X . Socratic 3B X . . 1 Syllogism 4-3 X . . Puerile 4-3 X . . Inn. 3: Tablets L02-06 1B . . X L02-21 3-1 SAC . X . L02-45 BB . X X L02-44 9 . X X L02-39 1B . X X 1 L02-07 5-3 X X . Inn. 4: Words Metadata 5-3 . . . Amanuensis 1B . . X WP . X . Factotum 5-3 . X . Diffident 1-3 . X . Inn. 4: Tablets L02-19 8 . . . L02-20 6-3 . . . L02-18 5-3 . . . Inn. 5: Words Platonic 4-3 . . . Ort 4-3 . . . Socratic 8 . . . Inn. 5: Tablets L02-06 5-3 . . . L02-21 K . . . L02-45 5-3 . . . Inn. 6: Words Syllogism 1-3 . . . Puerile 1B . . X Metadata 1-3 SAC . X . Amanuensis HR . . . 2 Factotum 5-3 . . . Inn. 6: Tablets L02-44 1B . . X L02-39 1B . X X L02-07 BB X X X L02-19 2B X X . 2 L02-20 1B X . X 1 L02-18 7 SACF . . X 1 L02-06 1B . X X L02-21 4 . X X L02-45 E-4 X X X L02-44 BB X X X 1 L02-39 6-3 X X . Inn. 7: Words Diffident 3B X . . Platonic 1B . . X 1 Ort 1-3 SAC . X . Socratic 1B . X . X@4:Platonic 8-2 . X . Syllogism 1B . . X 1 Puerile 8 . . X Inn. 7: Tablets L02-07 5-3 . . . L02-19 7 . . . L02-20 7 . . . Inn. 8: Words Metadata K . . . Amanuensis 8 . . . Factotum 1B . . X Diffident K . . X Inn. 8: Tablets L02-18 K . . . L02-06 6 . . . L02-21 1B . . X L02-45 HBP . X X L02-44 BB X X X L02-39 1-3 X X . Inn. 9: Words Platonic 6-3 . . . Ort 1B . . X Socratic 5-4 F . . X Syllogism 1B X . X [Relief] L02-15 Puerile 6-3 . X . Inn. 9: Tablets L02-07 4-3 . . . L02-19 1B . . X L02-20 1B . X X L02-18 5-4-3 DP X . .
Words Win, 8-6Personal Cosmic Baseball Game Report
Words @ Tablets
http://www.cosmicbaseball.com/wordtabletgame.html
Published: January 26, 2007
COSMIC BASEBALL ASSOCIATION/3056.j72
