Why 180 days of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform?
You may well ask. Well the immediate reason was a facebook post from my friend, Fred, and following that backwards, this post from Noah Efron. But why did this Noah guy choose to post this on May 8th, 2020? If you’re reading this in spring/summer 2020 then you’ll understand exactly why. But if you’re reading this in the future, you may not remember coronavirus/COVID19, the great global lockdown that swept the world in 2020, and the equally viral explosion of “challenges” that followed.
The 10-day photo challenge, 10-day painting challenge, 10 days of albums that changed your life. And then, fickle and cynical as we can be, people started to make jokes. The 10 industrial couplings that changed my life, 10 kitchen implements that changed my life. And to the matter at hand, 180 Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform tablets that profoundly influenced me.
Frequently these challenges come with the instruction to post without explanation. Why that might be is an interesting question. My feeling is that it is an example of survivorship bias. Memes must be shared to become viral. If the price of entry required to share them is that you have to sit down and write a description of the influence this album had on your teenage self, maybe you’ll ignore the nomination and just keep scrolling. But if all that’s demanded of you is to search for an image, copy and paste the challenge text, and nominate someone, maybe you’ll do your bit for keeping the transmission rate high.
In all honesty, I first started down this path as a bit of a throwaway joke. My friend Fred had posted his second daily tablet, sans explanation as the challenge specified. I decided to run a reverse image search to see what it was. No explanation? That’s just a frustration. I demand knowledge!
To my surprise, it was fun to go rooting through Google, searching museum catalogue numbers, reading articles on Wikipedia (which has a staggering amount of cuneiform content). By day 5 of Fred’s challenge (and kudos to him for keeping it up that long!), I was aching for a nomination. Commenting at length on my discoveries, triggered by Fred’s carefully-curated tablet of the day.
So on day 6 when my nomination arrived, I was ready to go. This blog is the result. I’m hoping that this will be more than just something to keep my mind occupied for an hour a day. I’m hoping that it will give me an excuse to think deeply about things. About the roots of transmitted culture. About signs and symbols. About art, drawing, literature. Recipes, taxes, maps. From high art to daily drudgery. And I’m hoping you’ll come along for the ride.
180 days of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform tablets that profoundly influenced my life? Let’s see if they do.
Greatest. Blog. Ever.
Couldn’t have asked for a better first comment!