18 Oct
2010
18 Oct
'10
5:51 p.m.
Often enough to make it worthwhile.
Well, yes, I think that is obvious. If it was not worthwhile, then
nobody would be doing it. The point I made way back when - or was
trying to make - is that the destruction of the Library of Alexandria
may have been a big loss, but a lot of what went up in smoke was very
likely plain old filler.
And the archaeologists often don't know enough
linguistics to make the
call for the linguistically interesting texts.
That is kind of a slam on archaeologists, isn't it? I bet they could
say that linguists often don't know enough history to make the
call for the historically interesting texts. "Aw, cripes, it's just
another scroll about Roman sewers or something.".
--
Will