cuneiform script

Examples of cuneiform script in the following topics:

• Government and Trade in the Achaemenid Empire

  • In addition to describing the genealogy of Cyrus, the declaration in Akkadian cuneiform script on the cylinder is considered by many Biblical scholars as evidence of Cyrus’s policy of repatriation of the Jewish people following their captivity in Babylon.
  • The Behistun Inscription, the text of which Darius wrote, came to have great linguistic significance as a crucial clue in deciphering cuneiform script.
  • The inscription, which is approximately 15 meters high and 25 meters wide, includes three versions of the text in three different cuneiform languages: Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian, which was a version of Akkadian.
  • Researchers were able to compare the scripts and use it to help decipher ancient languages, in this way making the Behistun Inscription as valuable to cuneiform as the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
  • A section of the Behistun Inscription on a limestone cliff of Mount Behistun in western Iran, which became a key in deciphering cuneiform script.

• The Sumerians

  • Many Sumerian clay tablets written in cuneiform script have been discovered.
  • Initially, pictograms were used, followed by cuneiform, and then ideograms.
  • Sumerians invented or improved a wide range of technology, including the wheel, cuneiform script, arithmetic, geometry, irrigation, saws and other tools, sandals, chariots, harpoons, and beer.

• Hammurabi's Code

  • A basalt stele containing the code in cuneiform script inscribed in the Akkadian language is currently on display in the Louvre, in Paris, France.
  • This basalt stele has the Code of Hammurabi inscribed in cuneiform script in the Akkadian language.

• Harappan Culture

  • Harappans are believed to have used Indus Script, a language consisting of symbols.
  • This Indus Script suggests that writing developed independently in the Indus River Valley Civilization from the script employed in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.
  • A Rosetta Stone for the Indus script, lecture by Rajesh Rao
  • View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-rosetta-stone-for-the-indus-script-rajesh-rao Rajesh Rao is fascinated by "the mother of all crossword puzzles," how to decipher the 4000-year-old Indus script.
  • These 10 Indus Script symbol were found on a "sign board" in the ancient city of Dholavira.

• The Mandate of Heaven

  • The Chinese character for "Tian," meaning "heaven," in (from left to right) Bronze script, Seal script, Oracle script, and modern simplified.

• Ur

  • Cuneiform tablets show that Ur was, during the third millennium BCE, a highly centralized, wealthy, bureaucratic state.

• The Phoenicians

  • The Aramaic alphabet, a modified form of Phoenician, was the ancestor of modern Arabic script, while Hebrew script is a stylistic variant of the Aramaic script.

• Art Under the Zhou Dynasty

  • Chinese script cast onto bronzeware such as bells and cauldrons carried over from the Shang dynasty into the Zhou, with continuing changes in style over time and by region.

• The Hittites

  • The history of the Hittite civilization is known mostly from cuneiform texts found in the area of their kingdom, and from diplomatic and commercial correspondence found in various archives in Egypt and the Middle East.

• Nubia

  • Writing was introduced to Kush in the form of the Egyptian-influenced Meroitic script circa 700–600 BC, although it appears to have been wholly confined to the royal court and major temples.
  • This was an alphabetic script with 23 signs used in a hieroglyphic form (mainly on monumental art) and in a cursive form.
  • The script was deciphered but the language behind it is still a problem, with only a few words understood by modern scholars.