by psulli

The 10th in a series of articles by the Editor-in-Chief of Minerva, Jerome M. Eisenberg, Ph.D., dealing with the problems of forgery and ancient art.

Over the past 100 years it has been interpreted variously as an adventure narrative, a poetic verse, a hymn, a prayer, a sacred text, a magic inscription – perhaps a curse, an aid-in-healing ritual, a funerary record, an almanac, or a calendar-diary. Others suggest an administrative document, a record of gifts made to a temple, a judicial court list, a political treaty, a palace schedule, a palace site plan description, proof of a geometric theorem, a call to arms, a list of soldiers, or a text for teaching reading. It has also been interpreted by some as a board game or game of chance, even musical notes for a stringed instrument. Not to be outdone, a Russian scholar recently proposed it as a device for the manufacture of metal wares.

Bonus link follows to another PDF article about the digital fallout from the assertion in the initial article.