The head of the Buccellati(see previous) jewelry family, Gianmaria Buccellati has died after a period of sickness. It wasn't until reading the notice that I realized that his brother is is Georgio, who has published one of the best modern Akkadian grammars, A Structural Grammar of Babylonian.
(source)
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Between 2 fragments (K. 8520 : British Museum (London) and ND 4311 (IM 59264) : Iraq Museum (Baghdad)) archaeologists have recovered 80% of a fascinating tablet. Written in the 7th C BCE, it contains two archaic, event at the point when they were written, forms of cuneiform, Old Babylonian signs (2nd and 4th columns) from about the time of Hammurapi (18th C) and Sumerian pictographs from approx 3400 BCE.
See more information and speculation as to the reasons behind it in the full article by Cécile Michel.
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The big news this week (overshadowing the Hazor Sphinx) is the discovery of what is, so far, the oldest alphabetic inscription in Jerusalem, predating the Hezikah inscription by over 200 years. The inscription is near the neck of a fragmentary pithos, the linebacker of storage jar(large and neckless). One of six recently found in Eilat Mazar's dig in the Ophel, near the Temple Mount, that seem to have been used as fill under later construction.
(Photo courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar; photographed by Noga Cohen-Aloro.)
There's a bunch of debate about the inscription already, so enjoy. Of the three, I'd pick Rollston's for completeness, he's also a well-regarded specialist in the field
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There was recently an exhibit on Sumerian art in Barcelona, though it closed at the end of February. One bit of it that has persisted is a 15 minute segment of an interview with Gonzalo Rubio, in English. It's available online (you need MS Starlight)
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It was used in administration and for agricultural records but it was not used in schools - the lack of a scholarly tradition meant that a lot of mistakes were made and the writing system may eventually have become useless as an administrative system. Eventually, the system was abandoned after some two hundred years.
(Dr. Dahl)
