Recent Discovery Contains Oldest Depiction of the Tower of Babel 309
smitty777 writes "The recent discovery of the Tower of Babel stele by a team of scholars shows what might be the earliest depiction of the ancient Tower of Babel. The stele belongs to Martin Schøyen, who also owns a large number of pictographic and cuneiform tablets, some of the earliest known written documents. The tablet (reconstruction) depicts King Nebuchadnezzar II, under whom Babylon was a cultural leader in astronomy, mathematics, literature and medicine. It's also interesting to note the somewhat recent Slashdot article linking the common ancestry of languages to this area."
Re:Tower of Babel (Score:5, Interesting)
The Monkey Theory comes into play here, in an indirect fashion. People can only remember so many facts, figures, names and slogans. Some of the smaller minded people in incapable of separating socialism from communism, and they can't go any further afield into the political spectrum to find terms that might fit their ideas. Assuming, of course, that they have any ideas that need to be articulated.
Re:Pretty Lame (Score:5, Interesting)
Doctor Morbius opined:
This article is idiotic. Time to exclude Unknown Lamer.
>/p>
Not to some of us.
Me, for instance. I'm a pretty serious student of the life of Alexander the Great - one of whose long-term projects was the rebuilding of the Ziggurat of Babylon. Up until now, there simply hasn't been a known-contemporary depiction of the Tower and its temple. All the illustrations heretofore have been products of their artists' imangination (the same is true of the Lighthouse of Pharos in Alexandria, btw). For history geeks, this is a rather wonderful discovery.
The Krell would be ashamed of you.