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Introduction
Cuneiform is one of the earliest known writing systems, emerging over 5,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The name comes from the Latin “cuneus” meaning “wedge” due to the wedge-shaped markings made by a reed stylus pressed into wet clay. Understanding cuneiform has been key to learning about early civilizations in the Near East.
This article provides an overview of how scholars deciphered this ancient script, from early attempts to breakthroughs using bilingual texts. It highlights key contributions that allowed the translations of texts from cultures like the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and more. For researchers today, unlocking writings in cuneiform continues to give insight into the daily life, beliefs, history and innovations of humanity’s earliest urban societies.
Key Takeaways
- Cuneiform decoding relied on using Old Persian and bilingual texts as “Rosetta stones”
- Assyriologists were pivotal in piecing together the script’s evolution and grammar
- Decipherment revealed writings on religion, math, literature, trade across ancient civilizations
- AI advances and big data analytics support continued cuneiform text translations
Deciphering Cuneiform Writing
Cuneiform was a writing system used across the Middle East for over three millennia, adapted over time to write around 10 languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite and Elamite. The script is composed primarily of wedge-shaped markings made by pressing a reed stylus diagonally or straight into wet clay, representing word signs or phonetic sounds.
The decipherment of cuneiform was an intricate process, as the script had fallen out of use and understanding by 1000 CE. Early attempts at decoding focused on Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions, as the simpler word-sign representations and use of proper names provided clues. In 1802 Georg Friedrich Grotefend determined Old Persian words for “King” and “Great” in a royal inscription, providing a foundation for translation.
Bilingual and trilingual texts comparing Akkadian or Elamite translations of Old Persian also aided decipherment across the region’s languages. The pivotal Behistun inscription, with identical translations in three languages, allowed Henry Rawlinson to verify Old Persian sounds and apply findings to unlock Akkadian. Assyriologists honed grammar and refined translations through meticulous comparisons of multilingual tablets and ancient dictionaries over decades.
“Deciphering cuneiform has unlocked the rich history, culture and interactions contained in thousands of Mesopotamian artifacts and writings.” – Dr. Zainab Bahrani, Columbia Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology
Sumerian Cuneiform
The cuneiform writing system is traced back to between 3500 – 3000 BCE in Sumer, located in ancient Mesopotamia covering modern-day Iraq and Kuwait. As a method of record keeping and communication, clerks created markings via reed styluses into soft clay, which was then hardened.
Over centuries the iconic wedge shapes evolved from pictorial drawings to standardized signs – Sumerian ideograms conveying entire words or phonetic syllable sounds. The Sumerians developed writing on clay tablets to conduct administrative and economic transactions, maintain agricultural production records, as well as craft poetry, myths and royal propaganda. Cuneiform use later spread through trade and empire expansion across neighboring civilizations.
“If writing was invented in a single stroke in answer to an empire’s needs, it is striking to note how easily and rapidly it escaped from the control of political powers and put itself at everybody’s service” – Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist
Mesopotamian Script Decipherment
The decoding of the region’s main languages – Sumerian and Akkadian – opened a bounty of ancient writings to study. Sumerian is an agglutinative language, meaning compound word components retain their original form and meaning. This complicated translation and grammar rules continue to be updated.
Fortunately thousands of Akkadian-Sumerian bilingual word listings on excavated tablets aided the process. These字典 “dictionaries” showed Sumerian vocabulary with Akkadian equivalents, conveying pronunciation and meaning.
SOME EXAMPLE :
| Sumerian | Akkadian | English |
|---|---|---|
| ama | ummum | mother |
| lugal | sharrum | king |
Today advanced AI and computational linguistics leverage multidimensional big data analysis to exponentially ramp findings from fragmented tablets. This both enhances accuracy and allows near real-time translation capabilities.
Ancient Texts and Decipherment
The deciphering of Mesopotamian cuneiform opened a treasure trove of insights into humanity’s first advanced urban societies and early recorded history. Findings revealed sophisticated medical practices, an early protowriting precursor, complex literature like the Epic of Gilgamesh, intimate letters, as well as trade accounts and astronomical records.
Top tablets translated after cracking the cuneiform code include:
- Code of Hammurabi (1754 BCE) – One of earliest sets of codified laws establishing justice system foundations still echoed in modern governments.
- Cyrus Cylinder (539 BCE) – Declaration by King Cyrus allowing freedom of religion showed enlightened leadership for era of antiquity.
- Epic of Gilgamesh (~2000 BCE) – Believed to be one of humanity’s oldest stories conveying universal themes of life and death still relevant today.
Who First Deciphered Cuneiform?
In the late 1700s cuneiform was still an unsolved puzzle, with controversy over whether markings were decorative symbols or a written language conveyed in intricate geometric shapes. Key contributors who built on each others’ incremental breakthroughs include:
- Georg Friedrich Grotefend (1775 – 1853) – German archaeologist who in 1802 matched repeating word groups on the Old Persian inscription at Behistun to royalty references of “King” and “Great” based on the Bible, providing first major advance.
- Henry Rawlinson (1810 – 1895) – British East India company army officer who risked his life climbing Behistun to copy the large inscription high up the cliff face. His reproductions comparing three languages allowed the first translations of Old Persian by matching proper names, which he presented to the Royal Asiatic Society in London in 1846.
- Edward Hincks (1792 – 1866) – Irish clergyman and orientalist who took findings from Old Persian to build the first decoding key for cuneiform used for Akkadian language translation. Later proved many symbols represented syllables.
- Assyriologists – Extraordinary interdisciplinary scholarly effort piecing together the evolution of cuneiform into a comprehensive writing system eloquently conveying an array of languages. Teams compared multilingual tablets, determined sound values and created the first Sumerian dictionaries.
Conclusion
The decipherment of cuneiform stands as one of the great intellectual achievements of human inquiry. Assyriologists revealed one of the world’s oldest scripts, allowing modern glimpses into the everyday life of prominent ancient Near East civilizations and their seminal contributions. From bringing written law, agriculture advancements, monetary systems, literary works and more to humanity – these groundbreaking societies left an indelible legacy still essential and inspirational today.
FAQ
What was cuneiform writing used for?
Cuneiform was used as a system of writing across the ancient Middle East for over 3,000 years. It was written by pressing a wedge-shaped stylus into clay tablets to keep records of everything from agricultural inventories and trade transactions to literature and astronomy observations.
How many languages could cuneiform write?
Cuneiform was highly adaptive and at its peak could transcribe around 10 languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Elamite and more. The script evolved over centuries, starting with pictographs then settling on stylized wedge imprints representing word signs and syllables.
How was the cuneiform code cracked?
The decoding relied on translators noticing Old Persian word sign patterns on royal inscriptions for “King” and “Great” as clues. Bilingual Akkadian-Elamite parallel texts then allowed refinements matching syllables to sounds. Assyriologists pieced together the script’s evolution through meticulous, iterative analysis of excavated tablets over decades.
Who made the biggest impact deciphering cuneiform?
Early pioneers were Georg Friedrich Grotefend and Henry Rawlinson determining Old Persian单词 meanings in the 19th century. However, extraordinary collaborative scholarship efforts by teams of Assyriologists over generations led to the deepest understandings of the writing’s linguistic complexities across associated languages.
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