Re: A new discovery near Urtalkas
| From: | Rik <rik@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, August 29, 2002, 18:48 |
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On Thursday 29 August 2002 5:46 pm, you wrote:
>
> I find this whole series amusing and interesting. Please, keep it up. My
> only question: a stone book? Sounds very impractical. How was it bound
> (you're not clear on this point).
>
Thank you.
My good friend the professor is too busy at the moment to publicise her
results and (tentative) conclusions - students, grants and other such stuff -
so I'm more than glad to prosetylise on her behalf.
She has prepared and published a paper on this, but it's not online at the
moment. It's very technical - I don't understand much of her terminology, but
I've found that if you feed her a few glasses of wine in the evening and then
ask questions, her answers become a lot easier to grasp.
As to the artefact, it is a carving of a book. The particular trench where it
was found was a treasure trove of carved stones and suchlike. A reasonable
explanation would be that this was a stonemason's or monumental mason's yard
(but not a graveyard, as no bones or burial furnishings apart from the
masonry has been found).
The book is crude when compared to most of the other artefacts, which makes
it likely that this was an apprentice piece.
Please do feel free to ask questions as we go along.
Rik