Cuneiform (Reading the Past) [4 ed.] 0520061152

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Table of contents :
Cover
Contents
Preface
1. Origin and Development
2. Tablets and Monuments
3. Scribes and Libraries
4. The Geographical Spread
5. Decipherment
6. Sample Texts
7. Fakes
Where to see cuneiform inscriptions
Further Reading
Index
Blank Page
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Cuneiform (Reading the Past) [4 ed.]
 0520061152

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READING THE PAST

CUNEIFORM

C.B. F. WALI

7 •8 .6

SYRIA

! Mt. Elwend

PERSIA

···:·· ····::··

2

•26 24 • •25

{}{}{})}�: ::::-:-.-:-:-:-.-.-. Above The Middle East. Left Bab_y lonia.

AKK

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

El-Amarna Lachish Jerusalem Damascus Ugarit Ebla Alalakh Aleppo Habuba Kabira Til Barsip Hattusas Kanesh Brak Mari Nineveh Kalhu Ashur Nuzi Behistun Godin Tepe Susa Dur-Untash Choga Mish

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

Tall-i-Malyan Persepolis Pasargadae Eshnunna Baghdad Sippar Tell ed-Der Jemdet Nasr Kish Babylon Borsippa Abu Salabikh Nippur Isin Puzrish-Dagan Adab Shuruppak Umma Girsu Lagash Uruk Larsa Ur

9

2 Pictographic tablets from Tell Brak.

proto-Elamite, appear in an archaeological level which shows marked differences from the previous level, suggesting the arrival of a new cultural group, and since these proto­ Elamite texts have now been found as far east as Seistan on the border of Afghanistan, it may be that the script was invented on the Iranian plateau. Study of the early Uruk texts themselves has also suggested that they are dependent on an earlier tradition of pictogra­ phy which has not yet been found or identified. Thus it is beginning to look as if we should think in terms of the invention of writing as being a gradual process, accom­ plished over a wide area, rather than the product of a single Sumerian genius. In practice any meaningful discussion has to start with the tablets found at Uruk in the early archaeological level known as Uruk IV and a slightly later group found in Uruk III. Contemporary with the Uruk III tablets are tablets from Jemdet Nasr to the north and the proto-Elamite tablets from Susa. Historically the Uruk IV-III levels date to c. 3300 2900 BC. There are both similarities and differences between the tablets from Uruk and Jemdet Nasr and those from Susa, but while the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr tablets are regarded as the beginning of writing in Sumerian, the Susa tablets are seen as the first examples of the still little-understood Elamite language.

3 A proto-Elamite tablet. Musee du Louvre, Paris.

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