Around The Quads
Senior Deciphers Ancient Text
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s a child, David Fischer enjoyed a book collection that included much more than The Cat in the Hat and Where the Wild Things Are. The graduating senior remembers the day his parents brought home a book that taught him to write in hieroglyphics. He was 6 years old.
“I’ve always had an interest in ancient things,” David says. Those interests flourished when David began studying Latin in earnest in the sixth grade. Fast-forward to today and discover David’s most recent project: translating and photographing Sumerian tablets from 2006 B.C. The project began last summer when David assisted a graduate student at State University of New York at Albany, cataloging some of the Sumerian inscriptions the New York Public Library has in its possession. Initially David worked primarily as a photographer on the project but was taught Sumerian to assist in the translation. Later, as the project continued well into the 2010–11 Loomis Chaffee school year, David began translating the ancient script on his own. David studied the Sumer civilization and region extensively (Sumer was located in southern Mesopotamia or modern-day Iraq.), and the Sumer culture and its development and use of cuneiform scripts piqued his anthropological interest. One of the earliest known forms of writing, cuneiform (Latin cuneus, meaning “wedge”) refers to the wedge-shaped letters made by blunt reeds pressed into clay tablets.
Flanked by his parents, Steven and Lucia, senior David Fischer proudly holds the catalogue that he helped research and produce. Photo: Mercedes Maskalik
Mesopotamia, recently approved by the SUNY Press, containing a tablet that David translated and photographed on his own as well as approximately 30 other tablets that David photographed, helped to translate, and catalogued. He presented the catalogue and shared the experience with his teachers and peers as a Senior Project this spring.
“What interests me is what these tablets were used for,” David enthuses. “The cuneiform writing helped the Sumerians log transactions. School tablets taught the scribes how to write and create royal inscriptions.” Nicholas Pukstas, David’s Advanced Placement Latin teacher, is impressed with the project. “Photographing and translating Sumerian tablets; [David’s] doing work that few graduate students attempt,” Nick says.
What’s next for David? “I don’t really know what I want to do,” he says. “Part of me says I’d love to do something with anthropology, or with archeology. Another part of me says I’d love to be a journalist, and yet another part says I’m interested in law.” He will have plenty of fields of study from which to choose at Cornell University next year, an institution he chose specifically for its Near-Eastern program. “I’m not locked down to anything yet. I plan to use my time at Cornell to broaden my horizons and narrow down what I’d like to do.”
The culmination of David’s work was the catalogue Royal Inscriptions of
To hear David’s Senior Project presentation, go to loomischaffee.org/magazine.
Immersed: Thirteen Seniors Complete Intensive Projects
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wooden boat, a graphic novel, a sculpture of the human spine, a stand of dying hemlocks, a preschool for children with special needs, a map of New Orleans, and other intriguing things occupied the minds and energies of 13 seniors during the final two weeks of the school year. The students pursued Senior Projects during the last fortnight of their Loomis Chaffee careers, with impressive results and insights.
More than 30 seniors submitted initial proposals for Senior Projects earlier in the year, and after
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feedback and revisions, the Senior Project Committee approved 11 projects involving 13 students. The selected seniors were excused from regular classes during the final two weeks of May and devoted their full attention to the experiential endeavors. Here is a list of the projects and participating students: The Anthology: Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning (original works in art and word) — Andrew Sanders and Donnie Collins
Building a Chamberlain Dory Skiff: The Craft of Wooden Boat Building — James Crawford
Observing, Interpreting and Predicting Change in a Local Forest — Caleb Harris
A Chinese Language Primer: The Adventures of Wang Taiyang — Anisa Knox
Pre-School Options in Special Education — Olivia Fraioli
Creating a Graphic Novel — Benjamin Mazzara Modern New Orleans: Mapping Man’s Conquest of the Swamp — Alexander Huseman A Night with the Senior Class — Austin Maier and Russell “Jamie” Kopp
Recording Unusual: Producing Original Music — Marissa Roer Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: Cataloging Sumerian Tablets — David Fischer A Sculpture in Clay: The Human Pelvis, Spine and Ribs — Victoria Garbo