An esteemed professor of archeology was back from a dig in Israel where the oldest settlement in that part of the world had been discovered, along with a tablet containing drawings of what was thought to be the world's oldest writing. The crude drawings depicted left-to-right a woman, a donkey, a shovel, a fish and a Star of David.
The professor was there to give a slide show lecture and the hall was packed, standing room only. Finally, the tablet was discussed and a likeness of the symbols was put on the overhead projector for all to see. You could hear a pin drop as the Professor explained his findings.
"The first symbol as you see is a woman - which we take to mean that this society held women as equals if not in high respect and as an important part of life, showing their social sophistication. Next we have a donkey, proving their domestication of animals. Next we have a shovel which ties in with the donkey - in that it symbolizes farming and working of the land, cultivation of crops and building homes. Next we see a fish, further proving this idea of a productive society that had the ability to farm and fish. And last, we see a Star of David, showing that even at the beginning of what we can call recorded history of that area, the people were religious and they saw this religion as the cornerstone of their family, work, and culture together."
The room was quiet, reflecting with admiration, the simple ways of these people. Then from the back came the voice of an old man.
"Excuse me?" he said, "I don't mean to cause a problem, but you have it all wrong."
"What do you mean?" called the professor as all heads turned.
"Well," said the old man, "this is from Israel, so you're reading Hebrew. Hebrew is read right-to-left. You translated it left-to-right. According to my translation (Star of David, fish, shovel, donkey and woman), it should really read:
Holy mackerel - dig the ass on that broad!"
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