"For passage over the water, there is a bridge"





Our Rosetta Stone was composed of balsa wood, bamboo leaves, brush and india ink, and twine. Our language included English, Sanskrit, and Ogham. It was definitely interesting to see the contrast and difference among these languages and civilizations as they came together, and also somwhat easy to see why each civilization used the medium they did (also factor in what was available to them).

Overall, the process of bringing the factors of each civilization together made for some cool experiences and thought progressions.

First things first. In receiving the block of stone with what looked like the random assemblage of lines, I was a little worried and curious as to how anything composed of purely lines, mostly vertical at that, could be translated, or even used as a form of writing. In researching the Ogham writing system I'm still unsure of how it works exactly. This brought up the relationship between the civilization and their writing system. It was as advanced as they chose it to be and it depended upon their vocabulary and environment. If their civilization was simple, there was no need for an extensive system with lengthy alphabets or symbolism.
In each civilization there is a need to factor in the different aspects of their life. Things such as education, religion, nature, etc. Things such as these affected their writing system and the complexity of it. Also the combination or extensiveness of those aspects contributed to the complexity of their writing systems.

As I was writing the Ogham onto our bamboo leaf my thought process only included lines. I knew what the overall phrase was but it got lost in line after line. I worried whether I was spacing them correctly as well and if it even said the same thing after I was through with it. Just as many other people have commented, I definitely felt that translating texts held a lot of error in the end result and that our society may be missing out on certain things today because of misreading or mistranslating texts. Also in writing the Sanskrit, it was sometimes hard to write exactly the correct symbol and I wondered if that would affect the translation of it.

Overall, it was a very enlightening experience that opened my eyes to the world of written knowledge within certain civilizations and their different means of preservation.

Cool stuff.