Re: How many people can read Sumerian Cuneiform

nygdan_morteauxspam@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> There's a lot of people that can accurately read italian, chinese, and
> all sorts of other languages, but how many people can actually pick up
> a sumerian tablet and read the cuneiform? Once the cuneiform is
> transliterated, is it basically the same amount of people that can now
> read that text?
>
> I ask perhaps for a silly reason, because I am wondering if Sitchin
> actually reads the stuff, the transliterations, or if he can't read it
> and instead just bases his interpretations upon what other people have
> already translated into english or some other modern language.
>
> I'd think that there are only a very few people out there who have the
> acdademic training and motivation to read the stuff. Is that wrong?

Several score at least. Perhaps a couple of hundred. Nearly 500 people
attended the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Chicago this
summer, but some of them were archeologists and many were Assyriologists
who don't deal in Sumerian. But most Assyriologists even of the latter
sort have at least some familiarity with Sumerian.

Why on earth would you mention Sitchin in sci.lang?
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx
.

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