Assyriology

Assyriology is the historical and archaeological study of ancient Mesopotamia. The field covers not just Assyria but also that nation's eventual conqueror, Babylonia and the predecessor of both civilisations, Sumer. The large number of cuneiform clay tablets preserved by these cultures provide an enormous resource for the study of the period and the region's (and the world's) first cities such as Ur are archaeologically invaluable as for studying the growth of urbanisation.

Related Topics:
Mesopotamia - Assyria - Babylonia - Sumer - Cuneiform - Ur

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As an academic discipline, Assyriology presents itself as one of the most demanding fields in the humanities. Scholars need a good knowledge of several Semitic languages (most often Biblical Hebrew), and the capacity to absorb the complexities of a writing sytems with several hundred core signs. While there now exist many important grammatical studies and lexical aids, many texts remain difficult to interpret accurately. Frequently, this is because the tablets they were written on are broken, or in the case of literary texts, where there may be many copies, the language and grammar are arcane.

Related Topics:
Semitic languages - Biblical Hebrew

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There are many dialects of Akkadian, the language of Assyria and Babylonia, ranging from the earliest texts in Old Akkadian and related Eblaite in the 3rd millenium BC, down to texts written in the first century of the common era. Some dialects are indigenous (for example, that found in merchant texts from Anatolia, called Old Assyrian), others appear to be specific 'inventions' of certain groups of literati or religous authorities (the Hymnic Epic dialect, and later, Standard Babylonian).

Related Topics:
Akkadian - Eblaite - 3rd millenium BC - Anatolia

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The writing system is based upon that developed in southern Mesopotamia for the Sumerian language. Sumerian has no other known cognates, and an entirely different grammatical system. Despite this difference, the adaptation of the writing system, together with many lexical items, as well as possible influence on Akkadian grammar, make reading any Akkadian text a challenging task.

Related Topics:
Sumerian language - Cognate

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The writing system was also adapated for other languages, including Hittite, Hurrian, and Ugaritic. A related cuneiform writing system also appeared for Elamite.

Related Topics:
Hittite - Hurrian - Ugaritic - Elamite

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The categories of literature which exist are enormous, including documents such as business and legal records, religious texts, canolical literary texts (for example, the Epic of Gilgamesh), historical inscriptions of rulers, personal letters, music mathematical and pseudo-scientific texts (omen series). There are lexical series of a type which reflect a scholarly interest in comparative linguistics, including the preservation of knowledge of the Sumerian language for religious and cultural purposes. In fact, because cuneiform was used for close to 3000 years the range of records is as naturally diverse as that found in writing today, notwithstanding lower literacy rates in antiquity.

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The 'creation' of the history of Mesopotamian culture is thus heavily filtered by the technical skills required to adequately understand 'what the text means'. It has also been traditionally close to Biblical studies, though this is less so today. However, training of Assyriologists has followed a traditional historical-philological path - in fact, a PhD apprenticeship, with less attention paid to questions around the philosophy of history, comparative anthropology or other fields which in easier circumstances, might be easier to incorporate in both training and publications. Few universities teach advanced Assyriology, and not that many teach, for example, introductory Akkadian which at least provides some orientation to the language and culture of the Latin of the Ancient Near East.

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However, there are important international projects online publishing photos, sign-copies and various editions of text.

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Noted assyriologists include Austen Henry Layard, Leonard Woolley and Hormuzd Rassam.

Related Topics:
Austen Henry Layard - Leonard Woolley - Hormuzd Rassam

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