Jun 12 2012

Found on the walls of a mummy’s tomb…

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What terrifying curse is inscribed here?

Actually, it would be very surprising to find that in an ancient tomb: it’s a bit of Beatrix Potter’s Tale of Peter Rabbit translated into Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Ah, geeky language nerds. If only they had a time machine, they’d be able to wreak total havoc on history.

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26 comments

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1

Glen Davidson

12 June 2012 at 10:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

If Hebrew can be resurrected from the dead, why not Coptic–and in hieroglyphics, no less?

Glen Davidson
2

Zeno

12 June 2012 at 10:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

So where’s the bunny??
3

KG

12 June 2012 at 10:15 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Funny, I read Peter Rabbit, and I don’t remember the vulture at all!
4

Stevarious

12 June 2012 at 10:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I want a time machine SO BAD for specifically that reason!!
5

roadhazard

12 June 2012 at 10:32 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Technically, it’s “hieroglyphs,” not “hieroglyphics.”

The latter is an adjective, as in “hieroglyphic writing.” Not sure why everybody gets this wrong. Just sayin’.
6

hyperdeath

12 June 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’ve just succeeded in completing my time machine. As as test mission, I’m planning to visit the 1st century, and see if I can insert some piece of random nonsense into the Bible.

It worked! I managed to convince some early Christians to engage in a bizarre ritual, whereby they pretend to eat the body of Christ. I wonder if they’ll keep that up?
7

hyperdeath

12 June 2012 at 10:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Hmmm… The temporal calibration device needs fine tuning. I arrived back a few seconds too early.
8

hyperdeath

12 June 2012 at 10:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’ve just succeeded in completing my time machine. As as test mission, I’m planning to visit the 1st century, and see if I can insert some piece of random nonsense into the Bible.
9

bbgunn

12 June 2012 at 11:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Hmmm… The temporal calibration device needs fine tuning. I arrived back a few seconds too early.

Power spike in the flux capacitor?
10

ogremeister

12 June 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Hyperdeath @ 7:

Hmmm… The temporal calibration device needs fine tuning. I arrived back a few seconds too early.

Wait…if you posted the results without seeing your original post first, how did you know you came back to the right universe? Especially since you didn’t seem to collide with yourself before you left?
11

christophburschka

12 June 2012 at 11:21 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

As as test mission, I’m planning to visit the 1st century, and see if I can insert some piece of random nonsense into the Bible.

Did it work? I can’t tell…
12

Lynna, OM

12 June 2012 at 11:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I wish someone would go back in time and give this set of hieroglyphs to Joseph Smith. Maybe he’d come up with a better “translation” than his boring “Book of Abraham.”

Book of Abraham Hoax

An early Egyptologist who found Joe Smith’s explanations of the Facsimiles in the Book of Abraham false was M. Theodule Deveria. In 1856, M. Deveria was working for the Louvre in Paris when he saw a copy of the Pearl of Great Price. Respected as a pioneer in Egyptology, he was asked to comment on Smith’s translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics. His comments were published in Jules Remy’s and Julius Brenchley’s two-volume book Voyage au Pays des Mormons (Paris, 1860). The following year an English translation of Remy’s and Brenchley’s book was titled Journey to Great Salt Lake City (London: W. Jeffs, 1861).

Egyptologist M. Theodule Deveria found that Joe Smith had not only made a false translation of the Facsimiles, but also had altered some of them from the original source. Together with later Egyptologists, M. Deveria found Joe Smith’s Facsimiles to be funerary documents that were taken from the Osiris mysteries and the Egyptian Book of the Dead….

http://www.conchisle.com/deveria.htm
13

brontodon

12 June 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I always liked the hieroglyphic versions of C-3PO and R2-D2 that are visible in the background of some scenes in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
14

Gregory in Seattle

12 June 2012 at 11:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I wish I could find the image, but a few days ago I saw a mockup of a UK historial marker (the blue metal disk) that said something like “John Wentworth lived here 1832 to 1867. Invented the time machine, 2136.”
15

pipenta

12 June 2012 at 12:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Does it say anything about lettuces having a soporific effect?
16

Happiestsadist

12 June 2012 at 1:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

If it says anything about lettuces, it should say that one should avoid any offered by Set.

Also, yay, Beatrix Potter.
17

stoferb

12 June 2012 at 1:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Lynna. BoA isn’t THAT boring, it’s full of “deep doctrine” that any mormon with a brain would rather hide from nonmembers because it’s so utterly ridiculous. It’s the best positive proof we have that Joseph Smith was full of crap.
18

Randomfactor

12 June 2012 at 1:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Regarding time travel:

http://safetynotguaranteedmovie.com/
19

Rich Woods

12 June 2012 at 2:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Power spike in the flux capacitor?

And don’t forget to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.
20

microraptor

12 June 2012 at 3:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I would totally do something like that.

But only after getting autographed copies of On The Origin of Species and Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman.
21

madscientist

12 June 2012 at 6:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Heresy! Peter Rabbit should be written in coniglioform, not in hieroglyphs.
22

Stella

12 June 2012 at 7:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Ah, geeky language nerds. If only they had a time machine, they’d be able to wreak total havoc on history.

Okay… Which one of you guys showed PZ the Secret Language Nerd World Domination Plan? That thing was supposed to be a secret, you know.
23

A. R

12 June 2012 at 7:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Eh, not a bad translation, but some of the grammar is a bit wonky.
24

harbo

12 June 2012 at 11:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

One should read
“The Grotto of the Dancing Deer”
By Clifford D Simak
25

tricster

13 June 2012 at 7:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@Stella 22

Okay… Which one of you guys showed PZ the Secret Language Nerd World Domination Plan? That thing was supposed to be a secret, you know.

I swear it wasn’t me! I don’t have that lying around translated in to English…
26

DanDare

13 June 2012 at 9:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Ah, geeky language nerds. If only they had a time machine, they’d be able to wreak total havoc on history.

Somebody already did, check out the bible. The problem is trying to put it back the way it was before.