The permanence of writing is a throwing away (crumpling the pages, oh fuck me, this just doesn't sound right!) and a trash fire.
"Those tablets were not baked, only dried in the sun and [were], therefore, very brittle. ... Basically someone back then threw the tablet in the pit and then burned their garbage," he said. "This fire hardened and preserved the tablet."
But of course...
"The Mycenaeans appear to have used Linear B to record only economic matters of interest to the ruling elite. Fittingly, the markings on the front of the Iklaina tablet appear to form a verb that relates to manufacturing, the researchers say. The back lists names alongside numbers—probably a property list."
But of course. A defaulted account, a score settled, a deal gone wrong, cooked in the flames of other things thrown away. Such are the enduring shards.
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ReplyDeleteThe Arthur Anderson of the Aegean, perhaps? ;)
ReplyDelete