NMC102H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Mitanni, Uruk Period, Semitic Languages
23 Jan 2018
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What is writing: represents ideas rather than a language, key elements of civilization, not essential for characterizing civilization. Four regions where writing arose out of nothing: mesopotamia, egypt, china, mesoamerica. Precursors to writing in ane: clay tokens, could have been used for counting sheep, numerical tablets, seals: administrative practice, used to indicate authority, all for record-keeping. We can"t actually understand what the tablet says but we can recognize some forms of the writing. Neo-assyrian writing: on stone (lapidary script) and on clay, sealer of tablet means he has approved the script. Languages and texts: we will be focusing on assyrians, babylonians, and summerians. Languages written in cuneiform: sumerian, akkadian, old persian, hurrian, elamite, eblaite, Sumerian: 3rd millennium bc, called themselves the black-headed people, not related to any other language in the world, earliest texts we can read in mesopotamia are in sumerian. Akkadian: middle of 3rd millennium bc, tablets found in first century ad, different dialects include.
