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ofthisandthat.org. All rights
reserved.
ofthisandthat.org. All rights
reserved.
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INAUGURATION, January 20, 2009
Drunk in its stale air
For two hundred years.
Fettered in mind and body,
The soul, the safe escape
To let me breathe the cries
Of my heart singing
Tears of mel-an-choly.
Drunk in its stale air
For two hundred years.
Fettered in mind and body,
The soul, the safe escape
To let me breathe the cries
Of my heart singing
Tears of mel-an-choly.
The tears flow free today
Washing the stains of blood
And sweat in brotherhood.
Raise the curtain then an'
Let the world look in
On this promised land --
We breathe free today.... almost.
--- Arshad M. Khan
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
--- Native American proverb
--- Native American proverb
December 18, 2020
Mr. President: As we put pen to paper transmitting thoughts and ideas to others
without face-to-face interaction, do we ever wonder that it is a fairly recent innovation
in human history?
The Egyptians developed hieroglyphs around 3300 BC although this pictorial form of
writing displayed prominently on obelisks and monuments is a trifle cumbersome on a
page. No, it was the Sumerians, those industrious farmers of the fertile lands beside
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, who with an eye towards record-keeping and keeping
accounts focused on a more convenient writing system. They invented cuneiform.
It is somehow fantastic to come to the realization when we write that its origins can be
traced back nearly 5,000 years -- to Sumer and men marking soft clay tablets with
wedge-shaped markings. Easily available clay from soft alluvial soils and stencils
from reeds provided the basics.
In the last hundred or so years, archeologists have been digging up these clay tablets
in quantities where the vast majority remain untranslated. Literature, law codes,
historical narratives, religious hymns and the Gilgamesh saga are all there in the
Sumerian language.
The language itself is what philologists call an isolate -- a language unconnected to
any other known language. During the third millennium BC, the Sumerians in the
south began mixing with the Semetic populations of northern Babylonia, and after a
period of bilingualism, the Sumerian language fell by the wayside, dying out as a
lonely vernacular. Akkadian became the language of the land to be followed by
others. It is Arabic now, a language far removed from that of Gilgamesh, the
legendary hero-king of the city of Uruk.
A Sumerian contemporary, the Indus Valley civilization bloomed in what is now
Pakistan, spreading to northeast Afghanistan and spilling over across the Pakistan
border into India. Its large cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa contained somewhere
between 30-60 thousand inhabitants according to estimates, and the whole civilization
could well have boasted from one to five million people.
Also known as the Harappan Civilization, its script has still not been deciphered. By
2002 continuing excavation had yielded over a thousand mature Harappan cities and
settlements. However, only five major urban sites have been found: Harappa,
Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala and Rakhigarhi.
The Indus Valley Civilization lasted from 3300 to 1400 BC a period of almost 2000
years -- a time period comparable to our own 2000 year calendar. They were known
for sanitation systems stemming from central planning for cities that were based on a
grid pattern. Logically, farmers stayed close to their land leaving cities to artisans
and trades people.
It is hard to know exactly what causes the demise of a civilization, but changing
climate patterns, a lack of rainfall and water shortages are often blamed. Worse are
dry spells followed by floods -- will that be our end as well? In Paul Valery's famous
words, "...the abyss of history is deep enough to hold us all."
Mr. President: As we put pen to paper transmitting thoughts and ideas to others
without face-to-face interaction, do we ever wonder that it is a fairly recent innovation
in human history?
The Egyptians developed hieroglyphs around 3300 BC although this pictorial form of
writing displayed prominently on obelisks and monuments is a trifle cumbersome on a
page. No, it was the Sumerians, those industrious farmers of the fertile lands beside
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, who with an eye towards record-keeping and keeping
accounts focused on a more convenient writing system. They invented cuneiform.
It is somehow fantastic to come to the realization when we write that its origins can be
traced back nearly 5,000 years -- to Sumer and men marking soft clay tablets with
wedge-shaped markings. Easily available clay from soft alluvial soils and stencils
from reeds provided the basics.
In the last hundred or so years, archeologists have been digging up these clay tablets
in quantities where the vast majority remain untranslated. Literature, law codes,
historical narratives, religious hymns and the Gilgamesh saga are all there in the
Sumerian language.
The language itself is what philologists call an isolate -- a language unconnected to
any other known language. During the third millennium BC, the Sumerians in the
south began mixing with the Semetic populations of northern Babylonia, and after a
period of bilingualism, the Sumerian language fell by the wayside, dying out as a
lonely vernacular. Akkadian became the language of the land to be followed by
others. It is Arabic now, a language far removed from that of Gilgamesh, the
legendary hero-king of the city of Uruk.
A Sumerian contemporary, the Indus Valley civilization bloomed in what is now
Pakistan, spreading to northeast Afghanistan and spilling over across the Pakistan
border into India. Its large cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa contained somewhere
between 30-60 thousand inhabitants according to estimates, and the whole civilization
could well have boasted from one to five million people.
Also known as the Harappan Civilization, its script has still not been deciphered. By
2002 continuing excavation had yielded over a thousand mature Harappan cities and
settlements. However, only five major urban sites have been found: Harappa,
Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala and Rakhigarhi.
The Indus Valley Civilization lasted from 3300 to 1400 BC a period of almost 2000
years -- a time period comparable to our own 2000 year calendar. They were known
for sanitation systems stemming from central planning for cities that were based on a
grid pattern. Logically, farmers stayed close to their land leaving cities to artisans
and trades people.
It is hard to know exactly what causes the demise of a civilization, but changing
climate patterns, a lack of rainfall and water shortages are often blamed. Worse are
dry spells followed by floods -- will that be our end as well? In Paul Valery's famous
words, "...the abyss of history is deep enough to hold us all."