Assyriology is the archaeological, historical, and linguistic study of ancient Mesopotamia and the related cultures that used cuneiform writing. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Eridu (URUNUNKI; Sumerian:eridug Akkadian: ?) from the Sumerian for 'mighty place' is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq Uruk ( URU UNUG, Sumerian: unug Akkadian: uruk) from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian Toponym 'unug' is modern Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk Nippur (URUENLIL; Sumerian: Nibru Akkadian: Nibbur) from the Sumerian for 'lord wind' (Enlil is modern ? in Afak Al Qadisyah Ngirsu (cuneiform? Sumerian:Ĝirsu Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, and it was a city of Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Susa ( Biblical שושן ( Shushan) also Greek: Σοῦσα Transliterated as Sousa; Latin Susa) Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Amorite ( Sumerian MARTU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’emōrî Isin (modern Ishan al-Bahriyat was a city of lower Mesopotamia, which flourished during the 20th century BC. Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq Chaldea (from Greek grc Χαλδαία Chaldaia; Akkadian akk māt Kaldu Hebrew כשדים Kaśdim, "the Chaldees" of the The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established The Kassites were an Ancient Near Eastern tribe who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca The Hurrians (also Khurrites; cuneiform Ḫu-ur-ri 𒄷𒌨𒊑 were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia Mitanni ( Hittite cuneiform, also Mittani) or Hanigalbat ( Assyrian Hanigalbat Khanigalbat cuneiform) Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Assur also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon" present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Nineveh ( Akkadian: Ninua; Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Hebrew נינוה Nīnewē; Arabic نينوى Naīnuwa) See Short chronology for a timeline in absolute dates The Chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for Ancient Mesopotamia was settled and conquered by numerous ancient Civilizations. The history of Sumer, taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods spans the 5th to 3rd millennia BC ending with the downfall of the Third The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties The following is a list of the kings of Babylonia, a major city and empire in ancient lower Mesopotamia, compiled from the traditional Babylonian king lists and modern Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian Akkadian Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris The akk Enûma Eliš is the Babylonian Creation myth (named for its Incipit) Gilgamesh was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II first dynasty of Uruk ruling circa 2600 BC according to the Sumerian king The pre- Christian religions of Babylonia and Assyria are the earliest attestation of Ancient Semitic religion, in particular Mesopotamian mythology Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Elamite is an Extinct language, which was spoken by the ancient Elamites. Aramaic is a Semitic language with Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The field covers not just Assyria but also that nation's eventual conqueror, Babylonia, together with the predecessor of both civilizations, Sumer. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar The large number of cuneiform clay tablets preserved by these cultures provide an enormous resource for the study of the period. The region's (and the world's) first cities such as Ur are archaeologically invaluable for studying the growth of urbanization. Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer.
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 (including Akkadian and its major dialects, aided by such languages as Biblical Hebrew for comparative purposes), and the capacity to absorb the complexities of writing systems with several hundred core signs. The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelite inscriptions 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. Moreover, scholars must be able to read and understand modern English, French, and German, as important references, dictionaries, and journals are published in those languages. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.
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 millennium BC down to texts written in the first century AD. Eblaite (also known as Eblan 639-3 is an extinct perhaps East Semitic language, which was spoken in the 3rd millennium BCE in the ancient city of Ebla The 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age. It represents a period of time in which Imperialism, or the desire to conquer grew to prominence Some dialects are indigenous, for example, the Old Assyrian found in merchant texts from Anatolia, while others appear to be specific 'inventions' of certain groups of literati or religious authorities (the Hymnic Epic dialect, and later, Standard Babylonian). Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black
The writing system is based upon that which was developed in southern Mesopotamia for the Sumerian language. Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Sumerian has no known cognates and utilizes an entirely different grammatical system. Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from 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.
The writing system was also adapted for other languages, including Hittite, Hurrian, and Ugaritic. Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern The Hurrians (also Khurrites; cuneiform Ḫu-ur-ri 𒄷𒌨𒊑 were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia The Ugaritic language, discovered by French archaeologists in 1928 is known only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit, near the modern A related cuneiform writing system also appeared for Elamite. Elamite is an Extinct language, which was spoken by the ancient Elamites.
The categories of literature which exist are enormous, including documents such as business and legal records, religious texts, canonical literary texts (for example, the Epic of Gilgamesh), historical inscriptions of rulers, personal letters, as well as music, mathematical. The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literary fiction. 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.
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, the 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. See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology"
Few universities teach advanced Assyriology, and not many teach, for example, introductory Akkadian, which at least provides some orientation to the language and culture of the Ancient Near East. In the United States these include Brown University, Hebrew Union College, Cornell University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania (which also includes a large Mesopotamian, Middle and Near Eastern collection in the University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), and Yale University. Brown University is a highly esteemed private University located in Providence, Rhode Island and is a member of the Ivy League. The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (also known as HUC, HUC-JIR, and The College-Institute) is the oldest Jewish The University of Chicago is a Private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The University of Michigan Ann Arbor ( U of M, U-M, UM or simply Michigan) is a top-ranked Coeducational public research The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn) is a private University located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology is an Archaeology and Anthropology museum that is part of the University of Pennsylvania
However, there are important international projects online which are publishing photos, sign-copies and various editions of text, such as:
- Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
- Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Lexical Texts
- Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
- Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary
Assyriologists
Noted Assyriologists include:
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See also
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