Do we really know what they wrote?

[pontifex]

I was watching Digging for the Truth on The History Channel last night. It was about King Tut. They were looking at heiroglyphics and stuff and saying that this meant that and that mean this, etc.

Is anyone here an archeologist or anthropologist?

So how do we know thats what they mean? Isn't it all pretty much guesswork?

 

[Looney]

No, it's called 'translating'.

 

[JayMassive]

Originally posted by: Looney
No, it's called 'translating'.

I'll go with that.

 

[Feldenak]

Text

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Looney
No, it's called 'translating'.

don't you have to know the language or whatever to begin with to translate?
so there are people who know that symbol A means this and symbol B means that and are 100% sure, even from a civilation that is that old?

 

[lobbyone]

I think they would know better since it is a documentary.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Looney
No, it's called 'translating'.

don't you have to know the language or whatever to begin with to translate?
so there are people who know that symbol A means this and symbol B means that and are 100% sure, even from a civilation that is that old?

Look up Rosetta Stone. That was the key that actually decyphered the language.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: lobbyone
I think they would know better since it is a documentary.

i'm not talking about the show in particular. i'm talking about the people who discovered this stuff and "translated" it.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Text

Well said.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Looney
No, it's called 'translating'.

don't you have to know the language or whatever to begin with to translate?
so there are people who know that symbol A means this and symbol B means that and are 100% sure, even from a civilation that is that old?

Look up Rosetta Stone. That was the key that actually decyphered the language.

yeah, after the other poster posted the link, that made sense.
but even before the Rosetta Stone was found.

Say we find some ancient text that doesn't look like any other writing in existence, how do we translate it?

 

[DaShen]

pontifex, ever heard of the Rosetta Stone. It was a tablet that had the same text written in a few different ancient languages. A few of them we knew. Since we also know modern Egyptian and some heiroglyphs were already known, the tablet was translated and the information became invaluable to translating other text and filling in the gaps.

It was a primitive form of cryptography.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Looney
No, it's called 'translating'.

don't you have to know the language or whatever to begin with to translate?
so there are people who know that symbol A means this and symbol B means that and are 100% sure, even from a civilation that is that old?

Look up Rosetta Stone. That was the key that actually decyphered the language.

yeah, after the other poster posted the link, that made sense.
but even before the Rosetta Stone was found.

Say we find some ancient text that doesn't look like any other writing in existence, how do we translate it?

You can't, unless you have something like the Rosetta Stone... which was why the Rosetta Stone was such a big thing.

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Looney
No, it's called 'translating'.

don't you have to know the language or whatever to begin with to translate?
so there are people who know that symbol A means this and symbol B means that and are 100% sure, even from a civilation that is that old?

Look up Rosetta Stone. That was the key that actually decyphered the language.

yeah, after the other poster posted the link, that made sense.
but even before the Rosetta Stone was found.

Say we find some ancient text that doesn't look like any other writing in existence, how do we translate it?

We knew some heiroglyphs already, we knew the context (if it was in a temple to a specific god than we used stories based on that god... in a tomb, we knew the stories behind pharoahs and afterlife). Context is very important to decyphering things. But yes, before the Rosetta Stone, it wasn't conclusive.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Looney
No, it's called 'translating'.

don't you have to know the language or whatever to begin with to translate?
so there are people who know that symbol A means this and symbol B means that and are 100% sure, even from a civilation that is that old?

Look up Rosetta Stone. That was the key that actually decyphered the language.

yeah, after the other poster posted the link, that made sense.
but even before the Rosetta Stone was found.

Say we find some ancient text that doesn't look like any other writing in existence, how do we translate it?

You can't, unless you have something like the Rosetta Stone... which was why the Rosetta Stone was such a big thing.

True, there are some ancient languages that we cannot decipher to this day - the Indus Valley Civilization comes to mind, they had a written language we cannot decipher. Indus script

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: DaShen


It was a primitive form of cryptography.

winner winner, chicken dinner :thumbsup:

 

[SonnyDaze]

Originally posted by: Looney
No, it's called 'translating'.

Yup. They Googled it!!