Tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal (600s BC) in the BritishMuseum.Discovery and translation of

Tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal (600s BC) in the BritishMuseum.Discovery and translation of the ancient Mesopotamian cuneiformtablets began in the mid-1800s AD, and literally transformed ourunderstanding of history.In 1837, Henry Creswicke Rawlinson presented his translations ofMesopotamian texts to the Royal Asiatic Society in London (and againin 1839).  In 1846, he worked with Austen Henry Layard in hisexcavation of Nineveh.  This was where the Library of Ashurbanipalwas discovered, and Rawlinson did the earliest translations of it.The signs of cuneiform do not make up a full alphabet – cuneiformuses a combination of ideograms (representing words or concepts) andphonograms (representing sounds).  Nobody had spoken these languageor read the script for thousands of years.  But the cuneiform wasgradually deciphered and translated, although we still cannotunderstand all of it.Confirmation of success came in 1857, when four scholars (EdwardHincks, H.C. Rawlinson, Jules Oppert and William H. Fox Talbert) sentback independent translations of the same document to the RoyalAsiatic Society.  Their translations all broadly agreed with eachother.Along with other Assyriologists (including T.G. Pinches and EdwinNorris), Rawlinson spearheaded the development of Mesopotamianlanguage studies.  He published Cuneiform Inscriptions of AncientBabylon and Assyria in 1860, and it became the standard referenceon that subject.  His works are still respected scholarly workstoday.George Smith was a self-taught translator of cuneiform, and made hisfirst contributions to deciphering it in his early twenties.  In1872, he translated the Flood Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh – anincredible discovery of an earlier version of the Noah’s Flood story. This translation overturned the traditional Biblical understandingof history, and made room for more scholarly, objective approaches tomove forward.Unfortunately, Smith died on an expedition to Nineveh in 1876, atonly 36 years old.  His young death was a significant loss tocuneiform studies in the 1800s.Edward Hincks and Jules Oppert were also important in thedecipherment of cuneiform.  Hincks focused on Persian cuneiform,establishing its patterns and identifying its vowels.  Jules Oppertidentified the origins of cuneiform, and also established the grammarof Assyrian cuneiform. -- source link

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