Remember those ancient Mali scrolls Islamist militants destroyed?

[Bateluer]

Nope! Librarians pulled a secret switch-a-roo.

http://world.time.com/2013/02/04/ti...s-saved-by-locals-endangered-by-a-government/

When French and African forces rumbled into northern Mali’s ancient capital 10 days ago, Timbuktu’s mayor, who had little direct information, told journalists erroneously that the jihadists had destroyed “all the important documents” and that Malians needed to “kill all the rebels.”

In fact, Timbuktu’s residents and preservationists had told TIME early last year that they had rescued tens of thousands of manuscripts before the militants seized northern Mali. They agreed to talk on the condition that TIME kept their secret until the jihadists had been defeated. The operation was conducted by Timbuktu’s old families, which have looked after the city’s 300,000 or so ancient documents for centuries. The residents left behind just a few hundred manuscripts in Timbuktu’s only publicly run collection, the Ahmed Baba Institute, in order to conceal the fact that they’d hidden the bulk of them elsewhere; it was those that were destroyed last month. “The vast majority of belligerents are illiterate, and we don’t want them to know how valuable these are,” Stephanie Diakité, an American in Bamako who runs workshops on the manuscripts, told me before the French and African forces freed Timbuktu. “We want them to think that they are just silly books.”

The article does note that the value of the scrolls is now known, and the Islamist militants will likely be on the look out for parchment and paper, even if they are illiterate, for use as 'hostages' and bargaining tools. :/

 

[SlitheryDee]

I finding it hard to understand the "value" of these scrolls. Surely their contents have been copied and transferred to a less fragile medium if they are so valuable.

 

[Kelvrick]

I finding it hard to understand the "value" of these scrolls. Surely their contents have been copied and transferred to a less fragile medium if they are so valuable.

I guess a copy is always just as good as the original to you. Museums investing all their money in preserving original works of art are just wasting their money. You can buy copies of all of them for $10 bucks at the local poster store or order a hand painted copy from china for $30.

 

[Bateluer]

I finding it hard to understand the "value" of these scrolls. Surely their contents have been copied and transferred to a less fragile medium if they are so valuable.

The articles I've read say no, they haven't. Either way, thats poor logic.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I finding it hard to understand the "value" of these scrolls. Surely their contents have been copied and transferred to a less fragile medium if they are so valuable.

Oh man, we should burn the declaration and the constitution down. They're all on the cloud anyway. Local storage is for wimps.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I guess a copy is always just as good as the original to you. Museums investing all their money in preserving original works of art are just wasting their money. You can buy copies of all of them for $10 bucks at the local poster store or order a hand painted copy from china for $30.

Actually...yes. I don't mean to sound derisive or to belittle their efforts, but I really don't see the point. If the information is useful then it is worth something. The age of the paper has no bearing to me. I place no value on historicity.

 

[Bateluer]

Actually...yes. I don't mean to sound derisive or to belittle their efforts, but I really don't see the point. If the information is useful then it is worth something. The age of the paper has no bearing to me. I place no value on historicity.

So . . . you place no value on virtually unknown sub-saharan African history? Or history in general?

 

[SlitheryDee]

Oh man, we should burn the declaration and the constitution down. They're all on the cloud anyway. Local storage is for wimps.

Well this is exactly what I meant. :\

Edit: That was sarcasm.

 

[SlitheryDee]

So . . . you place no value on virtually unknown sub-saharan African history? Or history in general?

Not history. Historicity

Those scrolls contain textual recordings of history, which is important, and can be copied and preserved. What I contest is their value independent of that content.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Well this is exactly what I meant. :\

History is history. Humans strive to have their accomplishments remembered. Its a basic instinct.

 

[Braznor]

 

[DCal430]

What is funny is how the media refuses to call them Muslims, instead using terms like Islamist, as if there meaningful difference.

 

[Ruptga]

What is funny is how the media refuses to call them Muslims, instead using terms like Islamist, as if there meaningful difference.

What is funny is how you refuse to call them the lieutenants of the antichrist, instead using terms like "the media," as if there meaningful difference.