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- Achaemenid Period (c. 559-330 B.C.E.)
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Monthly Archives: October 2010
The John Frederick Lewis Collection of Cuneiform Tablets
John Frederick Lewis (1860-1932) was a Philadelphia collector of writing examples: he was interested in the history of the written word and amassed some of the most significant collections in the United States. A man of modest means who could … Continue reading
Age and Origin of the Tablets
Nearly 1200 tablets are from the Ur III kingdom of Babylon, but there are tablets from Sumer, Akkad, and other Babylonian kingdoms. The tablets in this exhibition fall into the following categories: 1. Royal inscriptions, which include building of temples, … Continue reading
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a word of Greek origin that means “between the rivers.” It lay between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in what is now Iran and Iraq. The very first civilizations known to man emerged and flourished in this part … Continue reading
Posted in Mesopotamia
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Sumer
The existence of Sumer was only discovered in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The archaeologists who discovered it were looking for artifacts from ancient Babylonia and Assyria. Greek and Hebrew sources mention the Babylonians and Assyrians, but Sumerians … Continue reading
Posted in Sumer
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Babylon
The city of Babylon gave its name to two important periods in Mesopotamian history. The First Dynasty of Babylon, from around 1894 until 1595 B.C.E., was founded by Sumu-abum. Eventually it encompassed the regions of Larsa, Isin, Eshnunna, and Assyria. … Continue reading
Posted in Babylon, Period Overview
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The Development of Writing
Late Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods (3300-2900 B.C.E.) The earliest writing in the history of mankind was developed at the end of the fourth millennium B.C.E. in what is now southern Iraq. At this time, Mesopotamia was dominated by the … Continue reading
Writing in Clay
First, clay would be unearthed where it naturally occurred. It would be washed clean of impurities and debris. A scribe (writer) would write in the soft clay with a stylus made from a reed. The tablet dried quickly in the … Continue reading
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How Cuneiform “Works”
In the very early years of Mesopotamian life, there was a token exchange system. Tokens (often small clay cones) would be given in receipt for goods or services. This system was in use at least as early as 3500 B.C.E., … Continue reading
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Languages
The first language of the cuneiform script was, naturally, Sumerian. The Sumerian language is related to no other language, living or dead (which makes the task of the Sumeriologists working on the Sumerian Dictionary project at the University of Pennsylvania … Continue reading
Posted in Languages
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