From helmadik@midway.uchicago.edu Fri Sep 28 13:48:27 2001 Received: from mailscan1.cac.washington.edu (mailscan1.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.16]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.11.6+UW01.08/8.11.6+UW01.08) with SMTP id f8SKmON14118 for ; Fri, 28 Sep 2001 13:48:24 -0700 Received: FROM mxu2.u.washington.edu BY mailscan1.cac.washington.edu ; Fri Sep 28 13:48:24 2001 -0700 Received: from midway.uchicago.edu (midway.uchicago.edu [128.135.12.12]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.11.6+UW01.08/8.11.6+UW01.08) with ESMTP id f8SKmNu30395 for ; Fri, 28 Sep 2001 13:48:23 -0700 Received: from [128.135.57.40] (h-dik.uchicago.edu [128.135.57.40]) by midway.uchicago.edu (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id f8SKmNg09799 for ; Fri, 28 Sep 2001 15:48:23 -0500 (CDT) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: helmadik@nsit-popmail.uchicago.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <007301c1485d$8a262a80$b4cb64a8@jfgannon> References: Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 15:48:22 -0500 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: Helma Dik Subject: Re: On the Dispilio (mystery) tablets ... (sigh) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" >I believe there is no evidence of writing in Egypt or Mesopotamia before >3000 BCE, nor in any other place. It would be remarkable if an >archaeologist found writing, or something that might be writing, that could >be dated 2000 years earlier, and then managed to let it disintegrate without >even attempting a photographic record. > >J.F. Gannon Isn't there also a story about an epigrapher who saw inscriptions (in Delphi?) where nobody else did? Disintegrating wood, of course, is a much better choice of medium for unique finds:-) Story: I once bought a packet of wild rice that came in a package with a vague brownish color. Just drab at first sight. But honestly, the designer had picked a piece of papyrus, or fabricated one personally, with EPPWCO on it.. HD -- Helma Dik Dept. of Classics University of Chicago helmadik@midway.uchicago.edu http://humanities.uchicago.edu/classics/ .