A rchive Date
[ 23-04-2002 ]
Category
[ Science ]
sub-Categoy
[ Archaeology ]
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5,250 - year - old carving found in cliff could rewrite history
Tableau called more proof that writing began in Egypt
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
New York Times
April 19, 2002, 6:59PM
Carved in the limestone of a desert cliff in Egypt is a 5,250 - year - old tableau of a victorious ruler, perhaps the so - called King Scorpion - whose exploits, previously the stuff of myth, may have been critical to the founding of Egyptian civilization. The archaeologists who discovered the tableau seven years ago now say it may be the world's earliest historical document. More than that, they say, the inscribed scenes and symbols bear a strong resemblance to later hieroglyphs.
This is a significant addition to a growing body of evidence that the first true writing originated in Egypt - not in ancient Sumer, in what is now Iraq, as scholars of antiquity had believed. While some aspects of the discovery are controversial - particularly the suggestion that the ruler depicted is King Scorpion - several archaeologists familiar with it agree that this represents an early stage of writing, perhaps earlier than Sumerian writing.
And since the invention of writing is regarded as the great divide between prehistory and history, the discovery may push back the beginning of recorded Egyptian history 100 to 150 years, to about 3250 B.C., well into the obscure period before the land's unification under powerful pharaohs.
Until now, the earliest recognized historical document in Egypt was the Narmer Palette, found in the late 19th century in the ruins of ancient Hierakonpolis and dated 3100 B.C. The tableau, measuring 18 by 20 inches, was discovered in 1995 by Dr. John Coleman Darnell, a Yale Egyptologist, and his wife, Dr. Deborah Darnell, also a specialist in Egyptian archaeology, while they were surveying ancient trade routes in the desert west of the Nile.
The site is Gebel Tjauti, a place where several caravan trails converge about 25 miles northwest of Luxor and about 250 miles south of Cairo. It is close to where in 1999 the Darnells reported finding inscriptions that could be the earliest known examples of alphabetic writing, from about 1800 B.C.
Only now, after years of analysis and further excavations, the Darnells are describing their tableau findings in detail in a book to be published in June by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Their work also will be included on a television program, The Real Scorpion King, to be shown Tuesday on the History Channel. The program is tied to the release of a new movie in Universal Studios' Mummy series, The Scorpion King, which opened Friday. |
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