Thursday, September 17, 2020

PNS Interview with Davida Izriri, PhD

 PNS:  This is Rita Trevalyan here with Davida Iszrri.  You’re from Israel, right, Dr. Iszriri?


Davida:  Right, but call me Davida.  Dr. Iszriri is my mother the medical doctor.  I’m just a simple archaeologist.


PNS:  Not so simple.  You’ve made a few discoveries, haven’t you?


Davida:  Yes, all of us have.  What used to be a city very close to our encampment.  And it’s in remarkably well preserved condition.  


PNS:  Does the city have a name?


Davida:  We are calling it Cerberus after the three headed dog who used to guard the entrance to Hades, to make sure that only the dead entered there.


PNS:  Cerberus, interesting name.


Davida:but Winifred, our ancient language expert, is working even now on translation to discover their name for the city.


PNS:  Where did you get your PhD?


Davida:  Tel Aviv University, then I did some postdoctoral study in Jerusalem.   I was studying the Western wall of the Temple, the Wailing Wall, when I was called to this mission.Did you know that under the right wind conditions the Wailing Wall actually does wail?


PNS:  No, I didn’t.  I thought it got its name because of the people who stand there and wail over the destruction of the Temple.  


Davida::  Well, that too.  


PNS:  How did Dr. Harris manage to learn their language so she could translate it?


Davida:  Well you’re going to have to have another interview with her, aren’t you?  But to make a long story short, she discovered that it resembles ancient Mayan, except that the characters are phonetic, like ancient Egyptian rather than ideographic.


PNS:  Thank you, Davida for a very interesting talk.  Tune in next week for another inspiring interview of another member of the Proserpina Exploration Team.


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