RE: Advances in Reading the Herculaneum Scrolls
July 20, 2016 at 4:36 am
(This post was last modified: July 20, 2016 at 4:37 am by Alex K.)
(July 20, 2016 at 4:08 am)abaris Wrote:(July 20, 2016 at 3:07 am)Alex K Wrote: What is their significance?
The major significance is that it's a villa filled to the brim with ancient scrolls. An ancient library of sorts. The possible sensation lies in what these scrolls actually hold. Maybe some long lost works of classic authors, maybe something to shed new light on classic history, or maybe just some kitchen lists and inventories.
I'd take a kitchen list, too. In a way, I find these documents of ordinary daily life more fascinating than official documents or writings, because they let these long gone times appear much more real - some guy writing a shopping list 2000 years ago gives me a direct connection to real human beings and their concerns. For example, one of the things that left the biggest impression on me in the Forum Romanum was not the monumental architecture, but the marble game that had been etched into the stairs of the Basilica Iulia. Someone did that - who knows who he or she was - bored and in need of a board game.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
