The slate in the British Museum became a treasure because of which famous saying?

The neat chalk writing on the black slate is everyone’s memory of school days, but in the British Museum, there is a black slate that is more ordinary than the black slate we used in school. It says Covered with special handwriting, it is called a "rare treasure" by the museum staff. The reason why it is so precious is only for three reasons. What are the reasons? Let me reveal it to you next.

On the north side of New Oxford Street in London, England, there is Russell Square named after the Duke and Earl of Bedford. In the center of the square is a museum with a long history - " British Museum". The British Museum is as famous as the Hermitage Museum in Russia, the Louvre in France and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States. It is collectively known as the "four major museums in the world". It was founded in 1753 and has a history of nearly 300 years. It is the world's largest museum. The oldest and most magnificent museum in the world.

In 1753 AD, the great collector Sir Hans Sloane passed away. According to his will, his descendants donated his 71,000 collections to the country. Subsequently, the British government prepared to open the British Museum. Today, the British Museum has as many as 8 million collections. According to museum staff, as many as 99 collections cannot be publicly displayed due to limited space. There are countless rare treasures from all over the world, such as the Rosetta Monument in Egypt. , marble carvings from the Parthenon in Athens, Franks jewelry boxes and Portland vases, etc., are all very precious treasures.

In 2019, the British Museum took out a batch of cultural relics from the warehouse. Among them was a strange thing. It was a stone slab with neat handwriting written on it, but the handwriting was not in English, but It is in Greek. According to experts, this stone slab is a cultural relic obtained in Alexandria, Egypt. After evaluation by multiple groups of experts, it was determined to be a priceless treasure for three reasons.

First of all, with the passage of history, it is no longer an ordinary slate, but an alternative cultural relic. Experts have determined through carbon 14 dating technology that it existed in approximately A cultural relic from 2000 years ago, its identity should be a children's literacy board. Judging from its function, this slate is not only a cultural relic from 2000 years ago, but also shows to our descendants that the year 2000 The spiritual outlook of ancient Egyptian life was also explored, and the unique education method of ancient Egypt was discovered. The ancient Egyptians 2,000 years ago were already using highly "modern" blackboard teaching, which is really amazing. matter!

The second reason lies in the language of this stone slab. Although this is a cultural relic unearthed in ancient Egypt, the language on it is Greek. This detail shows us the language of 2,000 years ago. Conditions in Ancient Egypt. In the 4th century BC, the ancient Greek city-state Macedonia rose rapidly, unified all Greek cities, and established Alexander's dynasty. In 332 BC, King Alexander of Macedon invaded Egypt, overthrew the rule of the Persian dynasty, incorporated Egypt into the territory of Alexander's empire, and established a new city on the banks of the Nile - Alexandria. The pharaonic era of ancient Egypt came to an end.

In 323 BC, Alexander the Great died suddenly. His subordinate Ptolemy took over a large territory including Egypt, made Alexandria the capital, and established the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Ancient Egypt has since entered the "Hellenistic" period. Greek language, writing, architecture, religion, painting, etc. were introduced into Egypt, which gradually changed the cultural characteristics of ancient Egypt and gave it a strong Greek cultural flavor. Ancient Egypt Under the influence of Greek culture, culture gradually lost its original characteristics, and Greek became the official language. It is precisely because of this historical background that it seems normal that the writing on this stone slab is in Greek.

The last reason why this slate can become a treasure is that it can reveal more information. First of all, the owner of this slate should be a little boy from a noble family, because from the content of the slate, Judging from the format, it is a child copying a passage to achieve the effect of practicing calligraphy and memorizing. In ancient Egypt, children who had such conditions to learn must be from wealthy aristocratic families. In addition, in ancient Egypt, men were superior to women. Girls cannot study and study, hence this message.

The content on the slate is equally interesting. It is translated into Chinese as "Don't have bad friends, and you should make more wise friends." This teaching is actually the same as the ancient Oriental saying "Those who are close to vermillion are red, and those who are close to ink are red." "Black" coincides with each other! It shows the importance of making friends. Moreover, this sentence is also a very reasonable maxim in modern society.

Priceless cultural relics are not necessarily all gold, silver and jewelry. Sometimes some seemingly inconspicuous things can also hide rich information, and the history displayed by this information is also rare. Treasures, after all, our process of exploring history is, to a large extent, realized through these cultural relics left by history.