File:The archæology of the cuneiform inscriptions (1908) (14780901584).jpg

Identifier: archaeologyofcun00sayc (find matches)
Title: The archæology of the cuneiform inscriptions
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry), 1845-1933 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Great Britain). General Literature Committee
Subjects: Cuneiform writing Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian Assyria -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge New York : E. S. Gorham
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ced culture, is not the only revela-tion of the kind that we owe to cuneiform decipher-ment. We have learned that at a much earlier epochNorthern Mesopotamia was occupied by a people whospoke a language of similar type but of far more com-plicated form; and that here, too, the language inquestion was accompanied by a high civilization, a 1 See more especially Belcks comparison of the Vannicpottery with that of the Assyrian colony of Kara Eyuk, nearKaisariyeh, in the Verhandlufigen der Berliner anthropologisch-en Gesellschaft, December 1901, p. 493. Besides the highly-polished lustrous red ware, he found at Kara Eyuk fragmentsof the same wheel-made wine-jars, of gigantic size, whichcharacterized Toprak Kaleh, near Van. Similar jars, as wellas lustrous red pottery, were discovered by Schliemann in theprehistoric strata at Troy. The animals heads in terra-cottafound at Kara Eyuk are stated by Dr. Belck to be similar tothose of the Digalla Tepe, near Urumiya. For further detailssee infra.
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ASIA MINOR 167 powerful monarchy, and the use of the cuneiformsyllabary. The monarchy was that of Mitanni, andits culture and script had been borrowed from Baby-lonia in the age of Khammu-rabi, instead of fromAssyria in the age of Assur-natsir-pal. But it isinteresting to observe that in borrowing the scriptthe people of Mitanni had adapted and simplified itin precisely the same way as did the people of Van inafter days. Superfluous characters were discarded,a single phonetic value only assigned to each char-acter, and large use made of those which expressedvowels. In fact, in both Mitannian and Vannic thesystem of writing begins to approach the alphabetic.Whether this similarity in adaptation was due to asimilarity of phonetic structure in the two languagesor to conscious imitation on the part of the Vannicscribes it is difficult to say ; it is a point, however,which cannot be passed over. The name of Mitanni meets us on the Egyptianmonuments of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynas-ti

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