On 5/28/10, CeJ <jann...@gmail.com> wrote: > Why , oh, why are humans so thoroughly socially determined ? > > >>CB: Well, it worked to get across the death barrier for scores if not > hundreds of generations. I'm not sure what you are talking about. Some > of the Egyptian stuff and the others _did_ get across to us. We are > not utterly ignorant of those cultures and lives.<< > > Yes, of course, so Cecil B. Demille could completely recreate Egyptian > culture on screen for us.
^^^^^^^ CB: Ha ha. Egyptology has not completely failed; hieroglyphs have been translated, etc. There's the _Book of the Dead_, Cheikh Anta Diop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheikh_Anta_Diop) claims that Aristotle looted the libraries of the Egyptian city that preceded Alexandria, so , if that's true, some Egyptian philosophy and knowledge may have been preserved through Aristotle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone Rosetta Stone For other uses, see Rosetta Stone (disambiguation). The Rosetta Stone is a multilingual stele, stele 3 in the series for Ptolemy III, IV, V that allowed linguists to begin the process of hieroglyph decipherment. Illustration of the Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone in the British MuseumThe Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. The stone is a Ptolemaic era stele with carved text made up of three translations of a single passage: two in Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic) and one in the classical Greek of the country's Greek rulers [2]. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799 at Rosetta, and transported to England in 1802. Once in Europe, it contributed greatly to the deciphering of the principles of hieroglyphic writing, through the work of the British scientist Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-François Champollion. Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing. The text on the stone is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing the repeal of various taxes and instructions to erect statues in temples. Two Egyptian-Greek multilingual steles predated Ptolemy V's Rosetta Stone: Ptolemy III's Decree of Canopus, 239 BC, and Ptolemy IV's Decree of Memphis, ca 218 BC. The Rosetta Stone is 114.4 centimetres (45.0 in) high at its highest point, 72.3 centimetres (28.5 in) wide, and 27.9 centimetres (11.0 in) thick.[1] It is unfinished on its sides and reverse. Weighing approximately 760 kilograms (1,700 lb), it was originally thought to be granite or basalt but is currently described as granodiorite of a dark grey-pinkish colour.[2] The stone has been on public display at The British Museum since 1802. > Etruscan is a dead language of unknown origin and affiliation. Egypt > is now Arabic language. > The 'ancient' cultures' to which you refer were not stone age, nor > were they altogether as ancient > as many people think. However, those cultures did not survive; they > are extinct. > > CJ ^^^^^^^^ CB: How would you know that the cultures weren't as ancient, if none of their content didn't get through to you ? > > _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
