José Martins Garcia - Katafarauns

Katafaraum, the most celebrated of all centers of hydrophilic culture, was destroyed by a tidal wave in the year seventy AD. While lamenting this loss, the historian must recognize that the submersion of Katafaraum occurred at the precise moment when hydrophilic culture was turning towards sterility. Some pessimistic thinkers may object that this culture, which left behind an intriguing script, had always been and always would be sterile. We will respond that, beyond appearances, the writing of Katafaraum bequeathed us a treasure, both in terms of its system of representation and the maxims it contains.

The writing system used in Katafaraum has given modern Champollions great headaches. As many reading theories have been proposed as there are brains engaged in deciphering it. Attempts have been made to read from left to right, then from right to left; from top to bottom and from bottom to top; horizontally and vertically; in a cross and in a spiral; in a tree and in a fan; in a cylinder and in a sphere; in a spider web. Nothing. Until the wise Easterner Nanfazcafalta, enlightened by the virtue of many fasts, discovered that the Katafaraum script constituted a sui generis system, whose reading was independent of the traces left by the Katafaraonic scribes.
The deciphering depended not on the characters observed, but exclusively on the position taken by the decipherer. Nanfazcafalta found that a seated scholar would never be able to interpret a single Katafaraonic symbol. The same applies to scholars lying down, kneeling, crouching, or standing – positions that prevent access to the symbol. Nanfazcafalta undertook the deciphering of numerous fragments, placing himself in that position known as pyno. Nanfazcafalta's success is due to the principle that says that the positions of the text and the reader are not interchangeable.