13 Comments

Great post, Terry. I loved what you said about Champollion 'testing hunches'.

Really cool to use cryptic crosswords as a teaching aid - a great tool for lateral thinking. Although I frustrate myself with my daily attacks on cryptic crosswords I am grateful to be stretched in unexpected directions to solve the clues - the ones I CAN solve, that is... 👀

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Thanks, Rebecca. Indeed. I think a lot of breakthroughs come via a leap of imagination, lateral thinking. I love cryptic crosswords, especially when I can understand the instructions 🤣

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I think you're right! Or, to put it another way... *grimaces* ... by thinking 'outside of the box'!

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Groan. I once introduced a speaker with the words, "It wouldn't be accurate to say that Alan thinks outside the box, because he doesn't recognise the existence of the box in the first place"

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🤣

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It tickled him as well 😂

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Sounds like a fascinating exhibit. When I was a kid and entertained ideas of becoming an Egyptologist, I tried to teach myself to read hieroglyphics with limited success (I've since forgotten most of it). Perhaps it's not the most efficient writing system ever created, but there is something elegant in its flexibility, artistry, and symbolism. Even though it's been deciphered, it hasn't lost all of its mystery.

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Strange, isn't it? I was always fascinated by hieroglyphics too. So much so that I am having a hard time resisting the temptation to buy a ruler which doubles as a hierglyphs stencil. They're selling them at the BM!

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Oh, don't resist! I would say a ruler like that is an absolute necessity. Think of the possibilities! Sign your name with a cartouche! Spice up your to do lists! Measure things with panache! Accidentally invoke the wrath of Osiris as you draw perfectly straight lines!

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It is a subject that has captured a lot of peoples’ imagination!

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Apparently still is. I learnt yesterday from a book about the history of writing that there are other hieroglyphics (Mayan, I think) that STILL haven't been deciphered.

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I love it :-) I would be a little sad if all the world's ancient languages had been deciphered. Half the fun of history is trying to work out its secrets....

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That doesn’t surprise me - but it’s always easy to assume that these sort of topic areas are ‘done and dusted’!

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