Here it is–the world’s oldest writing… that we know about, so far. See if you can decode the secret message.
I hope you don’t mind taking a little break from watching our secular pin-head civilization destroy itself.
When was writing invented? Back when they used to teach such things in school, we were told that the ancient Sumerians invented writing, possibly as long ago as 4,000 B.C. Egyptian hieroglyphics came along shortly afterward.
In 1993, archaeologists in northern Greece dredged up a piece of wood from the bottom of a lake. The wood was carved all over with writing. Preserved in the oxygen-free environment under a layer of mud, the artifact was carbon-dated to circa 5,200 B.C. ( http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-writings-ancient-places-europe/dispilio-tablet-oldest-known-written-text-00913 )
Did you know that? I didn’t, and I try to keep close track of such things. This piece of wood, now called the Dispilio Tablet, is far and away the oldest known sample of writing. But of course we have no idea what it says. An unknown language written in an unknown script cannot be deciphered, as the saying goes. But we might have a slim chance of someday cracking the code, if the unknown language of the Dispilio Tablet is related to ancient Greek. For the time being, though, we have no way of reading it.
Funny things are going on in prehistory, these days. There’s the Potbelly Hill site in Turkey, where a vast, sophisticated temple complex, complete with nicely-executed sculpture in the round, was apparently in operation around 10,000 B.C (see http://leeduigon.com/2013/01/10/an-archeological-enigma-potbelly-hill/ ). And now the advent of writing has been pushed back over a thousand years.
If this keeps up, we’re going to run out of room in history for primitive, know-nothing cavemen.
Although we can always find their like in some of our more expensive public schools.
You’ll find even more of them in government…”living fossils”, anyone?
Interesting.
mazingly, I just decoded it for all the world to see. If the text reads from right to left, it distinctly says: “I told you to hold the anchovies! Who, in their right mind would think that you could improve upon a perfectly good pizza by sprinkling dead fish on top of it?”
If the language reads left to right it says: “Extra anchovies please. Who couldn’t appreciate these tiny little fish for giving their lives in order to make our pizza taste so good?” 🙂
I agree with the first sentiment.
“Science” or it’s misuse, sometimes leads us astray.
An excellent example of that is when in the 1980s science decided to test the Shroud of Turn, believed to be the burial cloth of the Lord.
Ages before photography existed, the Shroud has a photographic negative image of a man who was crowned with thorns, scourged, crucified, and pierced.
The Shroud was tested by the carbon-dating method in the 1980s and ‘determined” to be a forgery from the 13th century. Well, it turns out that the samples used for the test were taken from pieces of cloth added when the cloth was repaired after the shroud had been damaged by a fire!
All the other evidence (and there is much, including actual blood stains) indicates that a forgery was impossible, and that it was from the time of Christ, from the Jerusalem area.
A long-time friend, Dr. Gilbert Lavoie, MD has studied the Shroud for decades. He has determined that the image on the Shroud is of a man standing, with His feet not touching the ground.
I believe the image on the Shroud is not a “graven image,” that it is an image formed at the time of the Resurrection, and was given to us by God as the sign for these times that He promised would draw all men unto Himself.
For more information see shroudstudies.com
I’ve seen strong arguments for and against the authenticity of the Shroud, and can’t make up my mind about it.
PS–No reply yet from Jim McGregor’s son. I emailed him on Monday.
Here’s what bothers me about the Shroud of Turin. The image is upon one whole piece of cloth, but scripture says in John 20:6-7 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. According to this account there was a separate cloth on Jesus’ face, which would mean there were at least two pieces of linen cloth.
With respect to this ancient writing, some say that Enoch’s writings were brought onboard the ark with Noah, which would make sense, but who knows.
I think there’s a church in Spain that claims to have the napkin, but I’m not sure. I’d have to look it up.
Either way, Lee, how could the Shroud be authentic since it’s the entire image on a single piece of cloth? This has tugged at me for years.
I have no idea. I don’t think our belief in Jesus Christ depends on the authenticity of any relics. Much more powerful is the testimony of those who saw Him and spoke with Him after the Resurrection, who refused to recant even in the face of certain death.
Amen!
Noah was an intelligent man – he built an ark that withstood a worldwide flood. He needed blueprints, measuring devices, etc. which all require a written language. And why not a few scrolls of popular mystery books.