Assyrian Wisdom, Syriac Script
If you are wearing shoes,
Step on thorns and open
A path for your children and grandchildren.
–Advice from Ahiqar, sage and advisor to the Assyrian king Sennacherib, to his nephew.
A month ago, George Bet-Shlimon sent me four text fragments from his personal library of Assyrian documents, written out by hand in the Syriac script. This was my favorite, and I was lucky enough to have an astounding piece of flamed mahogany into which I could carve it. My deepest thanks to George, and also to Peter BetBassoo who helped me reach out to the Assyrian community through his online newsletter.
May 27th, 2012 in
Endangered Alphabets: The Blog | tags: Ahiqar, AINA, anthropology, Assyrian, carving, endangered alphabets, endangered languages, minority languages, Sennacherib, Syriac, writing systems
