The Digs
George N. Kemp, Jr.
Synopsis
Sarah Woodward, archaeologist, calls a meeting of two men prominent in their fields of Ancient languages and Astronomy to discuss her discovery of a gold box containing a gold tablet which is inscribed with pictographs dating prior to 3200 BC. She would like their help in deciphering the text. George Fleming takes the lead and contacts a friend who is very conversant with cuneiform.
The Digs – CHAPTER 4
For the next couple of days I fulfilled my obligations to CCNY. I gave two lectures on the development of Hieroglyphics, Demotic writing and Greek and how they affected present day Egyptian written forms.
I looked over the photos Sarah brought me and decided to develop a plan of action relative to deciphering the writings. First I collected various known versions of cuneiform writing dating back to 3500 BC. At the earliest, glyphs read from top to bottom but later the order rotated so reading became from left to right.
A quick scan of Sarah’s blowups revealed many of the glyphs were in the form of pictographs which were upright, indicating they were from an early time period. Therefore they predated those found to be from 3000B.C. forward. The reference to pictographs is important because no syllabograms¹ are present, which supports Sarah’s dating of her artifacts. While I have journeyman’s expertise in ancient languages, I can read later cuneiform but have great difficulty in that prior to 3000 B.C.
I called my friend Abel Assard at the University of Pennsylvania History Museum in Philadelphia. He and a couple of associates are known to be working on a cuneiform dictionary.
“Hello Abel, George Fleming here. It’s a long time since I talked with you. How are Rebecca and the children?”
“George, what a pleasant surprise. Nice to hear from you, but I feel you called for more than to ask about my family.”
“Well, it’s a bit of both, your family and a problem that I have. It has to do with the dictionary of cuneiform structure. I’d like to come down for a conference and to take you and Rebecca out for dinner at Le Bec Fin. If you agree, how about Thursday night?”
“Le Bec Fin? You do know how to pry a yes answer from me. Okay, Thursday it is. As to the conference my best free time would be around 1 P.M.”
“Thanks, Abel. See you then.”
(A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary is called a syllabogram.)
Afterwords I made copies of Sarah’s photos. My thought was to make some attempt at a rough translation. If I were to accumulate sufficient data, then maybe the rest would fall into place; a long shot at best. The whole tablet consisted of ninety to one hundred symbols, of which some were duplicated.
I dialed Sarah.
“Hi there, I’m calling to let you know that I’m going to Philadelphia Thursday to meet with a colleague who knows far more than I in reference to early Sumerian text. If we’re lucky, the result will shorten our quest by months. By the way, are you interested in gargoyles?”
“What a surprise! To think you’d ask a question like that. I haven’t any feeling pro or con, but I am familiar with some of them from old churches in Europe. Why do you ask?”
“The University of Pennsylvania in Philly is loaded with them. I’ll have some spare time and plan to photograph as many as possible. Call it whim, but it seems a most unlikely place for so many of them. I’ll show them to you on my return to the city. Someday I’ll take the time to research their origin.”
“George, I’d be delighted to see them. While you’re there maybe you could find an alien spaceship or two.”
“I always thought you’d have a sense of humor. See you next week Sarah.”
Driving to Philadelphia wasn’t an option. I long ago realized owning a car in New York City is a losing battle if its use is only to motor back and forth between city destinations. I considered flying, but the train proved to be more economic and faster overall.
On board and settled, I had plenty of time to reflect on my mission. First, it was a great feeling to be involved with others for a change. Since the death of Louise I became immersed in my work. I seldom went out with others. The date with Sarah stirred warmth I hadn’t experienced in some time. Second, the chance to participate in such a venture gave me a sense of purpose I thought I’d lost. I couldn’t wait to talk with Abel.
The receptionist notified Abel of my arrival. He warmly shook my hand and put his arm around my shoulder, guiding me toward his office. Abel’s appearance was unforgettable. Who would ever fail to remember his near shoulder-length mane as well as his Raleigh Fingerish handlebar mustache? His outward demeanor belied his importance in the Sumerian dictionary collaboration.
“George, it’s great to see you again. We will have to catch up tonight over dinner.”
“Abel, you haven’t changed a bit. I’ll bet you still drink Turkish coffee every morning.”
He laughed, “It’s the only civilized way to start the day.”
In the office Abel became serious and asked, “What’s so important you have to come to Philly?”
I replied, “I’m engaged in an attempt to make sense of a Sumerian tablet on which the glyphs seem to be prior to 3000 B.C. From what I can ascertain it has something to do with early myth about the Annunaki. I thought if you looked at it maybe you could fall back on your expertise and get me started.”
I handed Abel the pictures. He studied them for several minutes, and then said, “You’re right. They do date to an early period. Fortunately in the past several months we have been successful in finding a correlation with later cuneiform. Let me give this to my assistant, Dr. Brad Mickelas. He should be able to make some decent translation.”
“I don’t want to appear impatient, but how long will it take?”
“Well, if we’re lucky, I’d guess about a week or so.”
“Okay. How’s your own work on the cuneiform dictionary progressing?”
“We’ve come to the point where we feel there’s not much else to learn, except for the earlier versions. In fact we are ready to digitize it and the whole work will be in the area of sixteen volumes.”
I said, “Wow! I didn’t realize you had accomplished so much.”
“Well, you have to accept that we have been at this for forty years. As you know, interest in Sumeria dates back to the eighteen hundreds when excavations started in Southern Iraq. We have over thirty thousand clay tablets here at the museum.”
We discussed our mutual interests in ancient cultures for several minutes.
Abel glanced at his watch and said, “George I’d like to talk more but unfortunately I have a conference call in ten minutes. Anything more you want to ask?”
I thanked him and said I’d be at Le Bec Fin by seven.
The receptionist gave me directions to the area of the campus that held the most gargoyles. I spent the next hour in search of as many as I could photograph. I was surprised at the number of apparent benign figures. Somewhere in the back of my mind I felt that there may be some sense of destiny associated with the more grotesque figureheads. …And why did I broach my gargoyle interest with Sarah?