massarrah:An Ancient “Dictionary” from AssyriaLexical texts are a pervasive and characteristic genre
massarrah:An Ancient “Dictionary” from AssyriaLexical texts are a pervasive and characteristic genre in Mesopotamian scribal scholarship, attested from the earliest periods (c. 3200 BCE) to the end of the first millennium BCE. These texts not only formed a crucial part of the school curriculum, but also preserved scribal knowledge for future generations in the same way our own dictionaries do. The Babylonian origin of the lexical tradition is emphasised even in the ancient material, but the above tablet, which comes from Assur, is a Middle Assyrian list of objects that forms part of a series known as “Ura”. This tablet lists different types of wood, and each line begins with the Sumerian logogram that represents wood, “GEŠ” (used as a determinative). In each line, the Sumerian word is given first, followed by the Akkadian translation or equivalent. (Read more about lexical texts.) Lexical Text, Ura 5.Middle Assyrian, ca. 1400-1000 BCE.Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. Image from CDLI. -- source link
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