The trip to the library yesterday really tied together the readings for me. It was really cool to see the Egyptian papyrus, the Sumerian stones and the very early typography. I was able to visually see what I was reading about and it made me appreciate books more. It made me appreciate tablets even more than that though.
I agree with the fact that I appreciate the stone tablets the most because of how much work went into it. I also really enjoyed looking at the artwork in the books because it was all hand done. I feel like authors these days should maybe use various forms of initials at the beginning of a new chapter. I get bored just looking at plain text so I think it would be nice to see some artwork.
I think the tablets were the most interesting part, especially the cone-shaped one. When Diane read the translation, I couldn’t believe that all those small nicks and carvings were actually a relatively long paragraph about an iconic figure who’s memory they were commemorating.
I agree that the cuneiform tablets were the most impressive. I’m studying Japanese right now, and while the languages are very different, they are still modern languages. Compared to the ancient writing carved onto a stone, understanding those two languages seems easy. The amount of information imprinted onto the cone just feels unfathomably beyond understanding, until you realize that it was once a standard.