06.06 国博讲座：欧文-芬克尔(Irving Finkel) 楔形文字 – 致中国学者

【英国专家敦煌行】13 国博讲座：欧文-芬克尔(Irving Finkel) | 楔形文字 – 致中国学者

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楔形文字 – 致中国学者

芬克尔

2018年6月5日

中国国家博物馆

6月5日中午12时，欧文-芬克尔(Irving Finkel) 在刘正成陪同下来到中国国家博物馆，国家博物馆副馆长白云涛在国博宴请芬克尔先生，国家博物馆研究中心主任朱万章，国家博物馆研究中心副主任李守义，中国美术馆副馆长张晴，中央美院副教授郑勤砚等陪同宴请。

13点30分讲座开始，此次讲座由朱万章先生担任主持。芬克尔的讲座幽默风趣一点也不感到拘谨，而且通俗易懂，会厅里洋溢着欢乐的笑声，感染力极强！

现任大英博物馆中东部的美索不达米亚文字，语言和文化部副主任，是英国著名文献学家、亚述学家、世界楔形文字的著名学者。他毕业于英国伯明翰大学，获得亚述学博士学位，师从历史、考古学专家兰博（WILFRED GEORGE LAMBERT）教授。他于1976年进入大英博物馆工作，负责策划，翻译，分析大英博物馆的13万余件楔形文字碎片。他热爱教育，除日常在大英博物馆工作外，正在准备把自己所研究过的历史，如古巴比伦文明，古埃及文明，古希腊罗马文明写成故事一样的书，让孩子们从小就能接触世界古代文明，通过生动易懂的方式了解、记住丰富灿烂的人类历史财富。他的代表作有《诺亚之前的方舟》《救世之舟》等。

朱万章

讲座现场

芬克尔讲座结束后，中央美院教授 郑勤砚 登台讲述与芬克尔的相识经历，并表达了对芬克尔的赞美与欣赏。

郑勤砚

郑勤砚

芬克尔与粉丝的互动久久不散。

芬克尔与白云涛合影

芬克尔与李守义合影

芬克尔与朱万章合影

芬克尔与张晴合影

中国美术馆副馆长张晴还专程前往酒店访问吴芳思

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讲座内容：

（译文）

楔形文字 – 致中国学者

欧文·芬克尔

这是一幅中东的地图，深蓝色的地方就是现今的伊拉克，即古代的美索不达米亚。幼发拉底河和底格里斯河均流经于此。同样，这里也曾是苏美尔人、亚述人和巴比伦人的家园。也是在这里，世界上第一次出现了文字，有史时期的人类故事由此展开。这种文字叫做“楔形文字”，可以追溯至公元前三千五百年。当我还是一名学生的时候，我的导师异常严格，而且我是他唯一指导的学生。我们一起阅读了各式各样刻有楔形文字的泥板书。那个时候，我还全然不知道，自己将会把阅读这些泥板书作为终身的事业。

某种程度上，导师让我有这样一种印象：伦敦大英博物馆里面这些泥板书的数量在与日俱增。

此后，我才知道其实这些泥板书其实是从伊拉克出土的，在伊拉克的许多古典城邦中被发现。只有经过考古学家的挖掘，我们才能有机会读到它们。

这是一块公元前2700年的石雕，上面刻着一个美索不达米亚的牧师，他剃光了头发，以表虔诚。他有着大大的耳朵和眼睛，表明他对上帝的意愿言听计从。他会说苏美尔语，苏美尔语是唯一通过考古学才被广为人知的世界上最早的语言。这种语言是一种黏着语，词语是由一些语法成分组成的。在古代和现代，都没有与之相近的语言，它显得遗世而独立。在公元

100年的时候，这一语言就绝迹了。

这是一幅约公元前800的壁画，上面是一位亚述，他说的是阿卡德语，和苏美尔语一样，存在了几百年。阿卡德语是闪族语的一种，这一语言同样也在公元100年左右灭绝，但不同的是，它和现今仍在使用的语言是有关系的，比如希伯来语，阿拉伯语和阿拉美语。

美索不达米亚最早的文字

美索不达米亚最早的文字是简单的象形文字，它们被刻在了用幼发拉底河和底格里斯河泥土做成的泥板上。

这页幻灯展示了典型的伊拉克河流景色，右边是一丛高高的芦苇，泥板书的“笔”就是用这些芦苇做成的。

这个表格展示了早期美索不达米亚文字的三个重要特征。

早期的图形都非常简单，这些图像就像出自孩子之手，表达的内容非常清晰。鱼就是鱼，麦穗就是麦穗。

随着时间的推移，全部的楔形符号转了

90°，从直立变成了横卧。

逐渐地，弯曲的线条变成了直线。这是通过使用芦苇杆压印在泥板上来实现的。每一笔都将在泥板上划出对应的痕迹。由此产生了三角形的条线，也可以说是“楔形”的形状。这也就是它们被称为“楔形文字”的原因。

英文“Cuneiform”在拉丁语里面就是楔形的意思。线条变直的过程在公元前约2800年的时候就完成了。这一发展让这些符号从写实变成了非写实。在最近的铭文上，我们几乎无法识别出它们最原始的“写实”的象形符号，但是值得注意的是，楔形文字符号在随后的三千年中只有轻微的演变。

从象形文字到语音文字

对传达简单信息来说，象形文字是十分有效的。但是它无法传递出语法、清晰的意义或者是文学作品的内涵。逐渐地，人们认为泥板上的符号可以用来按照发音写字或者句子。这就带来了极为重要的改变。既然各位都对古代的中国文字有一定的了解，我将在此适当地进行解释。在英国的话，我是不敢这样做的，因为所有的听众都会无聊到极致而离开现场，但是我知道你们能够发现两者的相似之处。

在右上角，你们可以看到一个麦穗的图形，旁边是一些圆圈。在这里，这个图形实际上就表示“麦穗”。同样，这个图形也可以仅仅被用作一个语音，忽略麦穗这一实物。在苏美尔语中，“麦穗”读作“sheh”。只要文字里有这个音存在，抄写员就可以用这个符号来写一个更长的词。例如，苏美尔语中的“Sheh-ga”，意思是“好”。

在左上角你可以看到一个符号，它是一个直立器皿，尖尖的底部立在了土里。这是苏美尔符号“Kash”，“啤酒”的意思，也是一个非常重要的词。同时，它也可以被当作“BI”的发音。这对于记录语言是十分重要的，因为“BI”是英文中“it”或者“its”的意思，代词和物主代词它是无法画出来的。所以人们用了“啤酒”的图形来实现这一目的。

这就意味着，同样的楔形符号可以用来表示概念或者发音。通过这些符号，可以一个音节一个音节地来写成文字。

符号可以与其它符号相加来组成新的符号。这个符号是“头”，发音为“sag”，旁边有一个碗，发音为“ninda”。它们加在一起表示“吃”，发“Gu”的音，并且，这个新的符号表示“供给”。

一个符号可以有许多的意义和许多的发音。这里，我们来看一下最基础的符号“ka”，最开始它是“嘴”的意思。

符号具体的意义和正确的读音都需要根据具体的语境确认。

符号可以通过添加新的元素来拓展，有时候甚至改进其发音：

Ka和nun在一起变成“nundum”，嘴唇的意思，由于加入了符号“nun”，发音也由此改变。

“ka”和符号“me”结合变成了“eme”，舌头的意思，这个嵌入的“me”带来了发音的变化。同样，添加新的元素也可以改变词的意思。

嘴的符号“ka”和食物的符号“ninda”组合，就像前一页幻灯我们所看到的一样，变为了“gu”，吃的意思。同样地，水“a”和“nag”在一起表示“喝”的意思。

苏美尔语就像是字谜。楔形文字就是以其为依托，记载了人类的历史。这就意味着，现代手机里酷炫的短信都是依赖于和文字一样古老的原则而存在的。

在成熟的泥板书中，大约有1000

个楔形符号。大多数符号都有多个发音意义，大多数单个的符号都可以与多个符号相叠加。当时，并不是所有的抄写人员都知道每一个符号的意思，但是对于现代亚述学家来说，人们期待我们知晓所有符号意思的。因此，我们根本无法与博大精深的汉字相提并论。

这是非常古老的楔形文字字典碎片。一旦出现了许多满足语言需求的符号，标准也同样会出现，以防止被遗忘或者混淆。因此，苏美尔人发明了世界上最早的字典，目的是将所有的词和符号都列出来。最终，这些词和符号总计数千行。它们被当时的记载人员研究和保存了将近三千年。

约在公元前1700年，巴比伦的学童需要学习这些符号。与众不同的是，初级的孩子由高年级的孩子教。日常的练习通常是在这种形状的板上进行的，通过把泥球压平，进行打磨，泥板就做好了。孩子们需要学会如何制作这样一个泥板和楔子，学习符号，抄写字典或者文献中的内容。年纪稍长一点的孩子会用他们的尖头笔划好线条，并且写下前面的三四行楔形文字。

年纪稍小的孩子们需要将这些楔形文字默写出来，写在泥板的另外一头。通常来说，他们写出来的质量都不太高。然后老师就会出来，来检查他们的作业，大家都懂，班上写得不好的就会挨打，被老师的手杖惩罚。

这个学生的写字板与前面所举例子的时期相近，但是它上面没有文字，只有图画。上面描绘的肯定是一名老师。他撅着一张嘴，鼻毛从鼻孔里伸出来，实际上这就是一副漫画，并且对老师有些不敬。这大概是世界上最早的漫画了。

最早记载的药品左边的泥板是用苏美尔语记录的，上面记载着严重皮肤感染的疗法。

这个泥板书约为公元前2300年的文物，上面的内容可能拥有更长的历史，因为人们需要花费很长时间来采集药材和并且对其进行试验。右边的则约为公元前五百年的文物，上面有着已知最早的关于各种癫痫的记载。

这是公元前十四世纪的国际间皇家通信。米坦尼王国，即现今的叙利亚，的图什拉塔国王给埃及法老阿蒙诺菲斯四世的信中，询问了他女儿的彩礼，这个泥板现存于埃及。这封信是用巴比伦的楔形文字写成的。米坦尼国王先让人用米坦尼语听写下他的话，抄写员之后又将他的话翻译成了阿卡德语，写了下来。送信人将此信送到了埃及，最终，法老皇宫里的文员又将阿卡德语翻译成埃及当时的语言给法老听，地点就在阿玛尔那。

之后，泥板就被收了起来，但是负责档案管理的文员用古埃及僧侣体文字将其用小条记载下来，以备国王需要随时查看此信，这就避免了在一堆看似相同的泥板中来寻找所需要的信件，节约了时间。

这一页上面有三个石板上刻着的楔形文字。第一个石板是为了纪念一个大型公共建筑的建成，其次是一块天青石的狼牙棒，上面刻有皇家的题词，最后是墙壁石雕的一小块，记录了亚述历史中的某个战争。

有一个很有趣的现象就是，泥板书上特有的楔形形状，人们也不怕费时费力地在石头上模仿出来了。这是楔形文字中两个标志性的皇家题词。上面是所谓的苏美尔楔形圆锥，其中有一个圆头的泥土钉子，上面刻着纪念一座庙宇建成的铭文。这颗钉子然后就被镶嵌在了新建筑的墙里面，给未来的人们提供一些信息，告诉人们这座庙是哪个国王建造的，里面供奉的是什么神。

美索不达米亚的国王通常喜欢在砖上刻上他们的名字和头衔。这样就保证了他们的名字会被上帝铭记，并且，当这些建筑需要被修缮的时候，未来的国王也会对其十分尊敬。每个时期都发明了特有的捷径，例如文字被反向地刻在了一个印章上，因此，同样的铭文可以被反复使用多次，节省了大量的人力和物力。印章由多个呈矩阵形状(可以理解为“田”字形)的小印章，各个小印章代表一个楔形文字，然后有些被发现是上下颠倒着的。这意味着这些小印章都是可以卸下来的，可能为了便于清洗，并且装回去时经常被倒着放这表明，巴比伦人发明了活字，但是很遗憾，这一想法仅仅用在了生产有铭文的砖头上。

右上角的图片是著名的《汉谟拉比法典》的一个部分，是公元前18世纪的巴比伦文物。它的风格十分特殊，看上去十分宏伟，国王会在公共的纪念碑上使用这一字体风格。

左边是一块巨大的尼布甲尼撒二世时期的石碑铭文，距今约1000年。上面记载了他在首都巴比伦实施的大型建筑项目。

尼布甲尼撒二世也同样使用了丰碑式的字体，当时来说是老派的，但是却可以用来表示国王和他的王朝永存，贯穿了过去和未来。

右下角的泥板书上印上了尼布甲尼撒二世的名字和头衔，同样也是用的古体字。

其中一名参与了建筑工作叫做“Zabina”的人，他把自己的名字写在了国王名字的旁边，用的是远比古体字简单的阿拉美语。

巴比伦的学者对于他们的文字是如何演变的极为感兴趣，并且对于从弯曲的象形文字到直线型楔形文字的转变有着很好的理解。

这一片段是公元前1000年前的一个符号清单，古代的象形符号和他们现代的对等文字相对应起来。

大部分的配对都是正确的，做出这样一个表单需要对古文献进行长期的研究，这些文献之前还需要被出土，然后送至专家手中。这是亚述巴尼帕国王，当时的亚述之王和世界之王。是美索不达米亚最为强大的统治者。他是一名军人，政客和学者。亚述巴尼帕国王是世界上第一个图书馆员，因为他在首都尼尼微建立了一个图书馆。尼尼微图书馆当时应该保存着所有的传统知识，收集了甚至其它王国的楔形文字泥板书。图书馆对其进行保存，复印，研究，并用于实践当中。19世纪，莱亚德出土的这座图书馆的一些残骸。他找到了大约三万片泥板书碎片，这些碎片都被送到了大英博物馆。在过去的175年中，学者们都在寻找这些碎片之间的联系，试着修复内容。我们所了解的古代美索不达米亚语言、文学和发明，很大一部分都来自于亚述巴尼帕这些绝妙的泥板书上。目前在大英博物馆内重新设计展览目的在于让人们知道亚述巴尼帕图书馆在使用的时候可能的面貌。

考古学从其它遗址中发现，泥板书是竖着被存放在壁龛中的。这样就可以更好地帮助参观者理解为何我们称它为一个图书馆，因为很少有公众熟悉楔形文字泥板书，因此不太理解为何一些看似奇怪的褐色泥土碎片会被这样描述。

每一块泥板书都会被小心翼翼地照亮，一到两行的文字被翻译成了英文，例如如何阻止婴儿哭闹的处方，上面还说，小孩子应该像小羚羊一样有着甜美的鼾声。亚述巴尼帕国王最好的文员实际上是真正的书法家。这个特写是《吉尔伽美什史诗》中大洪水章节的一小部分，它出自一位公元前七世纪的大师之手，更加突出了楔形文字的美感。行文如流水，每一个符号都和下一个符号相连，增添了典雅之感，看上去活灵活现。

每一行的文字都是经过了调整的，如果一行还有空出来的地方，那么则是在中间部分空出来而非末尾。一个单词不可以被拆分出来写两行。泥土可是一种相当无情材料，这就表明想要在上面改正一个错误几乎是无法掩人耳目的。修正和错误总体来说非常稀少，所以我猜测学生们在学校的时候就被教导千万别犯错。

一个几近完好无损的尼尼微图书馆泥板书是十分罕见的，就像是为国王而写的一样。上面的内容显示了数千年前第一部字典的最终版本。上面的长列包括阿卡德语的近义词。这些字典对现今的阿卡德语研究者和对当时亚述巴尼国王的文人来说，都十分有用。这块泥板书左角上的文字是两倍行距的，这是图书馆的标签或者是版本标记，出现在了许多国王的泥板书中。它介绍了关于此文章的信息，例如行数、系列中的下一个泥板书、甚至是关于这一泥板书来源的记载。此外，国王还自夸自己的学识，称自己可以读懂“大洪水”来临之前古老的泥板书。右边两个泥板书碎片出自皇家图书馆，它们是唯一用墨水书写楔形文字的例子。其文本都是常规的泥板书，但是版本记录(书籍末页)是用墨水写的。可能因为泥板太干了，无法让人印象深刻。我们无从得知它们是否用尖头的芦苇杆还是毛笔写成的。实验表明，至少对一个英国人来说，不管用那种方式蘸着墨水写楔形文字都是极其困难的。符号的准确性和统一性都表明抄写员肯定对于两种方式都得心应手。

我们知道，当时图书馆里面有许多木质文字版和纸莎草的卷轴，但是均无一幸免，因此，它们上面记录的很有可能是用墨水写成的楔形文字。

在亚述城邦尼姆鲁德的一口泥井里面出土了公元前八世纪的亚述象牙碎片，包括这个铰链式的书写板。整个框架内部被填满了热蜡，当蜡冷却的时候，就可以用传统的尖头笔在上面书写楔形文字符号。一些蜡的碎片仍然附着在板上，上面的铭文主题是关于算命的一些征兆。这是一个亚述的雕塑，描绘了一个抄写员用尖头笔，另一个用墨水在纸莎草上书写的场景，可能使用的是阿卡德语或者阿拉美语。他也可能在做一些官方记录。公元前612年，亚述的历史性衰落意味着该城市大面积的破坏，皇家图书馆所在的地方也不能幸免。所有出土的泥板书都是支离破碎的，并且还有一些表明入侵者可能放火焚烧了一切。这个泥板书的边缘有一些气泡，并且部分玻璃化了。对于泥板书来说，火不是最可怕的。大部分尼尼微泥板都被烧制过，更为坚硬，不像保存在亚历山大博物馆数千的珍贵卷轴一样，他们全部在公元前48年被大火焚烧得不见踪影。

一些公众将泥板书带到了大英博物馆进行仔细检查。

原来是这已知的最早的关于大洪水故事的版本，可追溯至约公元前1800年。

它详细地描述了制造方舟的形状、大小以及所需的材料数量。其实，诺亚方舟不是方的而是圆的！这一泥板书上的 重要内容带来了一项实验，在印度，我们根据这一泥板书上的信息，对诺亚方舟进行了重建。并且，我还出了一本书，名叫《诺亚之前的方舟》，此外还拍了一部纪录片。目前，我的书正在被翻译成中文。

这是按照泥板书上所描述的方法建好的大型圆舟。这艘船漂亮地漂浮着，每一个参与了制作的印度工人都十分兴奋，因为在较为艰苦的条件下，他们花费了数月才得以将它完成。

这是最古老的“世界地图”，是由一位公元前600年的古巴比伦宇宙学家描绘的。从地图上看可以出，他们认为世界是圆的，像是一个圆盘或者是一个圆球，具体是圆盘还是圆球我们也无从分辨。

世界被一圈海水包围着。地图里面展示了美索不达米亚的中心地带，幼发拉底河从北到南流经此地。巴比伦和其它一些城市也有记载。

地图上显示了八座极大的山脉，每一座都有它自己的故事和特定的居民。根据巴比伦人的观点，在其中的一座山上，大洪水故事中的诺亚方舟停在了上面。数年前，我成功地将一个泥板书的碎片添加到了这幅地图中，让它更加完整。

这个碎片描绘了这些山脉中的其中一座，它被标记为“the great wall长城”，但不凑巧的是，这不是指的中国的长城，因为其它的楔形文字表明，美索不达米亚的这一传统可以追溯至公元前3000年。

这个巴比伦学校用的泥板书约为公元前五百年的文物，这是一名双语小学生写的，他会阿卡德语和阿拉美语。能够流利书写楔形文字的孩子会被老师要求寻找对应的阿拉美语字母。我们所看到楔形文字只能传达音节，但是辅音字母不能单独写。所以，例如“D”就要写成“Da”。拼写表明孩子们学习字母的时候就像现在的孩子一样，学习的是字母的发音，而不是这些字母的全称。

这个巴比伦泥板书是公元前177年的文物，出自一位有名的天文学家，里面还包括了玩棋盘游戏的规则，有时候这个游戏叫做乌尔的皇室游戏，乌尔是美索不达米亚的重要城市，有骰子和一些小部件。

下面是同一个游戏，距今约2300年，它是为一个苏美尔皇室家庭而制作的。

规则表明，这是一个让人兴奋的比赛游戏，结果往往是很难预测的，这个游戏在古代世界十分流行，就算我们今天去玩也会觉得十分有趣。

这是一幅由驱魔师写成的带插图的手册，用来治疗病人的偏头痛。带来偏头痛的恶魔可以从人们的耳朵里进去。书中的仪式要求人们用泥土做一个圣贤或者是明君像，坐在他的王座上，手举着权杖。这座像应该被放置在床头，阻止魔鬼靠近。同时，还要做第二个泥像，即国王的大臣，他伸出了双手，放在了一根棍子上。很明显，当弹一下他的时候，就会开始转动，从而将魔鬼驱走。就像是田野中的稻草人把鸟吓走一样。这幅画拥有非常丰富的细节，需要高超的技巧才能完成。在泥板上画画同样需要像抄写员一样深厚的功底。希腊学者在巴比伦。这是希腊的学者在访问巴比伦的学者，约发生在公元前一千年，他们吸引来了天文学家、数学家和医生。大量的知识都是通过这种途径进行传播的。许多美索不达米亚人的观察和发明都被翻译成了希腊文，也就是那个时候，楔形文字开始消失。通过这里的两幅图我来举例说明一下。

这个泥板书是一个星历或者是有关于天文的记载，上面记录了公元前104年至102年间月亮的运动。下面的希腊纸莎草是用墨水的，可追溯至公元100年，其中有着一些非比寻常的数字列表。这无疑是从楔形文字泥板书上用希腊文抄写下来的，之后又被希腊的学者反复摘抄和研究。美索不达米亚的数字是六十进位的，不是十进位，也就是说，他们一般都会数六十下进位。这也就解释了为什么一分钟是六十秒，一个小时六十分钟，还有三百六十度角等等。所有希腊从巴比伦学来的知识都是以六十为单位计数的，而现今我们仍然还在沿用！

一位希腊人正在巴比伦学院进修。

为了能够学习这些小心保存的古代知识，一些希腊人决心从传统教学开始，学习楔形文字，从单词表开始学。

这是苏美尔语和阿卡德语的“canal”，运河的意思，它们被写在了楔形文字版的正面，背面是这个单词希腊语的发音。

这是一份神迹般的记录，那个时候单词的发音被记载了下来，就像是一个蜡筒留声机或是一张仍然可以播放的老唱片，让我们穿越千年的历史，仍然可以捕捉到那些早已销声匿迹的声音。

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（英文原稿）：

Cuneiform Writing for Chinese Scholars

Irving Finkel

Notes for translator

Introduction

Slide 1

Title page

Slide 2

Map of Middle East to show the location, in dark blue colour, of Iraq, anciently MESOPOTAMIA. This land is watered by the two rivers EUPHRATES and TIGRIS and is the homeland of the ancient SUMERIANS and the ASSYRIANS and BABYLONIANS. It was here that writing appeared for the first time in the world, and the historical period of the human story began. This writing is called CUNEIFORM and its roots go back to about 3,500 BC.

Slide 3

When I was a student my professor was extremely strict and unforgiving and I was his only student. Together we read clay tablets of all kinds inscribed with this cuneiform writing. I did not suspect at first that I was to spend my entire life reading such tablets. My professor somehow gave me to understand that inscribed tablets made of clay grew in the BRITISH MUSEUM in London.

Slide 4

Later I discovered that clay tablets really came from the ground of Iraq, and were found in many ancient cities, and that they had to be EXCAVATED by ARCHAEOLOGISTS before they could be read.

The Languages

Slide 5

This is a stone sculpture of a Mesopotamian priest from about 2700 BC. His head is shaved for purity. He has large eyes and large ears showing that he is attentive and obedient to the will of the gods. He speaks SUMERIAN, the oldest world language known only through archaeology. This language is AGGLUTINATIVE (words made up of grammatical elements added together) and has no ancient or modern relative: it stands alone. It has been extinct since the first century AD.

Slide 6

This is an ancient wall painting of an Assyrian scribe in about 800 BC. He speaks AKKADIAN, which for centuries existed side by side with Sumerian. Akkadian is a Semitic language. This language, too, has been extinct since the first century AD, but it is related to modern languages that are still in use; such as HEBREW, ARABIC or ARAMAIC.

The first writing in Mesopotamia

Slide 7

The earliest writing in Mesopotamia consisted of simple PICTOGRAPHIC signs drawn on flat tablets made of clay from the Euphrates or Tigris riverbanks. The slide shows a typical Iraqi river scene, and a cluster of tall river reeds from which the writing stick or STYLUS would be cut.

Slide 8

This chart illustrates THREE important features of early Mesopotamian writing:

1. The earliest signs were drawn with a point in a very simple style. The signs

resemble the spontaneous drawings of young children and show very clearly what they represent: a FISH is a fish; an EAR OF BARLEY is an ear of barley.

2. Over the passage of time these early signs turned through 90º (so that they lie on their ‘backs’).

3. Gradually the CURVED lines of the earliest signs changed to STRAIGHT lines. These were produced by impressing the cut end of the reed stylus into the clay. Each stroke of the stylus displaces part of the clay.. This produces a line, one end of which widens out to form a WEDGE shape. It is for this reason that the>

Pictographic into phonetic writing

Pictographic writing is quite effective for simple messages but cannot convey grammar or unambiguous meaning or literature. Gradually it was understood that signs on clay could be used to write words and sentences phonetically. This had several importance consequences. Since you are all life-long readers of the wonderful>

Slide 9

In the TOP RIGHT corner you see an EAR OF BARLEY sign next to some round numbers. Here this sign literally means ‘ear of barley.’ The same sign could also be used just for its PHONETIC value, ignoring the subject of barley. ‘Barley’ in Sumerian is SHEH. A scribe could use the ‘barley’ sign in writing a longer word in which that sound occurs, for example Sumerian SHEH-GA, to spell SHEGA, meaning ‘good.’

In the top left corner you see the sign which is an upright vessel with a pointed base that could be stood in the ground. This is the Sumerian sign KASH, which means ‘beer,’ an important word. At the same time it can be used to write the sound BI. This was very necessary in recording language because BI means ‘it’ or ‘its,’ and no one could draw an ‘its;’ so it was decided to use the sign for ‘beer’ for that purpose.

This means that the same cuneiform signs could write IDEAS and SOUNDS.

Using these signs scribes could write words, syllable by syllable.

Signs could be added together to make a new sign. The sign for HEAD, pronounced SAG, is shown next to a FOOD BOWL, pronounced NINDA. Together they mean ‘to eat,’ pronounced GU, and the new sign refers to rations.

Slide 10

One sign can have many meanings and many sound values. Here we examine the basic sign KA, which means primarily ‘mouth,’ and is represented by crosshatched lines on a man’s head.

This sign can stand for many related words each of which sounds different:

‘mouth,’ when it is pronounced ‘KA,’ ‘word,’ pronounced ‘INIM,’ ‘speech’ pronounced ‘GU,’ ‘nose’ pronounced ‘KIR’ and ‘tooth’ pronounced ‘ZU.’

The specific meaning of the sign and correct pronunciation comes from context.

Signs can be extended by adding new elements, sometimes to refine PRONUNCIATION:

KA with the sign NUN written inside becomes ‘NUNDUM,’ ‘lip,’ with the small inserted sign NUN giving a pronunciation clue.

KA with the sign ME written inside becomes ‘EME,’ ‘tongue,’ with the small inserted sign ME giving a pronunciation clue.

or MEANING:

KA, ‘mouth,’ with NINDA,’ food’ inside, as we have seen in the previous slide, becomes ‘GU,’ meaning ‘to eat.’ Similarly with ‘A,’ ‘water,’ inside, meaning ‘NAG,’ ‘to drink.’

Slide 11

Sumerian liked ‘rebus’ writings. And cuneiform>

There are about 1000 cuneiform signs in the developed>

Slide 12

Pieces of very early cuneiform DICTIONARY. Once many signs were developed to meet the needs of language, standard lists had to be made before they were forgotten or confused. The Sumerians thus produced the first dictionaries in the world: the plan was to list all words and all signs. Eventually the resource consisted of thousands of lines. These compilations were studied and preserved by scribes for nearly three thousand years.

Slide 13

Teaching the signs to Babylonian schoolboys in about 1700 BC. Starting pupils were characteristically taught by older pupils. Daily writing exercises are usually on tablets of this shape, which were made by flattening and smoothing a rounded ball of clay. Boys had to learn how to make a tablet, make cuneiform wedges, learn the signs and write out extracts from dictionaries and literature. The older pupil ruled lines across the tablet with his stylus and wrote three or four lines of cuneiform on the front. These were then studied by the younger pupil and written out from memory on the other side. Often the copy is of very poor quality. Then the adult teacher would come and inspect the work, and we know that bad work in the classroom was punished with the stick.

Slide 14

This school tablet of a similar date to the preceding example has no writing, but only this drawing. It surely depicts the teacher. The small disapproving mouth and hairs poking out of the nostril show that this is a CARICATURE, and an unkind one at that. This is probably the oldest caricature in the world.

Slide 15

The first recorded medicine. The tablet on the left is in Sumerian language and contains recipes for oily treatment of bad SKIN INFECTIONS. It was written down in about 2300 BC but the contents are probably much older and the result of many generations of plant collection and experiment. The tablet on the right dates from about 500 BC and contains the earliest known description of different kinds of EPILEPSY.

Slide 16

International royal correspondence from the fourteenth century BC. King TUSHRATTA of Mitanni in modern Syria writes to the Egyptian Pharaoh AMENOPHIS IV to ask about the dowry gold he was owed for his daughter, now in Egypt. The letter is written in Babylonian cuneiform. The Mitanni king dictated his letter in Mitanni language to his court scribe, who translated it into Akkadian and wrote it all out. The letter was sent to Egypt with a runner and eventually translated for the Pharaoh into Egyptian language by the court scribe at the site of AMARNA. Afterwards the tablet was put away, but the scribe in charge of the court chancery wrote a note in ink in HIERATIC EGYPTIAN in case the letter needed to be quickly retrieved for the king, to save searching through boxes of archived tablets that all looked the same.

Slide 17

Three examples of cuneiform writing on stone. A FOUNDATION TABLET commemorating the foundation of a major public building; a lapis-lazuli MACE WEAPON with a royal inscription and a small section of Assyrian historical account of a battle from an inscribed stone wall sculpture. It is interesting to see that the characteristic shape of the WEDGE as impressed into clay is laboriously but effectively imitated in stone.

Slide 18

Two iconic types of royal inscription in cuneiform. Above is a so-called Sumerian CUNEIFORM CONE, in which a clay nail with rounded head is inscribed with an inscription commemorating the building of the temple. The nail is then inserted in the wall of the new building as a message for the future, recording the name of the builder king and the god to whom the temple was dedicated. Below is inscribed clay ‘HAND,’ a classic feature of Assyrian palace wall architecture, similarly used as a vehicle to carry a commemorative inscription.

Slide 19

Mesopotamian kings usually liked their bricks to be inscribed with their names and titles. This would ensure that their names would be kept in mind by the gods, and respected by future kings if the building needed restoration. At various periods a shortcut was devised, whereby the royal lines of writing were cut IN REVERSE on a stamp, so that the same inscription could be applied multiple times directly to the surface of clay bricks with great saving of labour. Some bricks are known in which certain cuneiform signs are upside-down, showing that the MATRICES in the stamp to produce the impressions were removable for cleaning, and were sometimes reinserted UPSIDE DOWN. This means that the Babylonians effectively invented MOVABLE TYPE, but the idea was only applied to the production of inscribed bricks.

Slide 20

The upper right image is part of the famous black stone LAW CODE of KING HAMMURABI of Babylon from the 18th century BC. It is written in a special, monumental style of>

Slide 21

Scholars in Babylon were deeply interested in how their>

Slide 22

Here is King Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria (668-627 BC), the most powerful Mesopotamian ruler of all. He was soldier, statesman and scholar. Ashurbanipal was the first great librarian of the world, for he founded a library in his capital Nineveh which was supposed the contain the sum of all traditional knowledge, collected on cuneiform tablets brought from the far reaches of his kingdom to the library for safekeeping, recopying, studying and practical use. In the 19th century the remains of this library were excavated by Austen Henry Layard. He found some 30,000 pieces and fragments of broken tablets which came to the British Museum. For the last 175 years scholars have sought to identify joins between them to reconstruct the contents. A great proportion of what we know about ancient Mesopotamian languages, literature and discovery comes from Ashurbanipal’s wonderful tablets.

Slide 23

The present, recently redesigned display in the British Museum to give an idea of what Ashurbanipal’s library might have looked like when in use. Archaeology from other sites shows that tablets were stored on end in niches. A selection of tablets illustrates the KING AS CHIEF LIBRARIAN, the ACQUISITION OF TABLETS, and RESEARCH ON DOCUMENTS, ENQUIRIES and also the Destruction of the Library. This is to help visitors see why we call it a ‘library,’ for few members of the public are familiar with cuneiform tablets and therefore do not see naturally how a collection of strange-looking pieces of brown clay could be described that way. Each tablet in the case is carefully lit and has a line or two of text translated into English, such as the recipe to stop a baby crying, which says that the child ‘should snore like a GAZELLE.’

Slide 24

King Ashurbanipal’s best scribes were true CALLIGRAPHERS. This close-up is part of the STORY OF THE FLOOD from the EPIC OF GILGAMESH, and highlights the beauty of cuneiform when written by a master in the seventh century BC. The>

Slide 25

A rare example of a more or less intact Nineveh library tablet much as it would have looked when just written for the king. The text shows the final form of the first dictionaries that began thousands of years before; in this case the columns of text include long lists of Akkadian SYNONYMS. Dictionaries like this have been just as useful to modern scholars of Akkadian today as they were to Ashurbanipal’s scholars. The left hand corner of the tablet, written double-spaced, is the library tag or COLOPHON that appears in many of the king’s tablets. It gives information about the composition, number of lines, the next tablet in thr series, or even records where the tablet came from. In addition, the king boasts of his own scholarship and learning and how he can read ancient tablets ‘from before the Flood.’ The two tablet fragments to the right are the only examples from the royal library that show cuneiform written in ink. In both the text itself is conventionally written, but the colophon is in ink, perhaps because the clay was then too dry to take a sharp impression. We do not know if a cut reed ‘nib’ was used or a brush; experiment shows that – for an Englishman at least – writing cuneiform in ink either way is exceedingly difficult. The exact accuracy and uniformity of the signs shows that the scribe or scribes must often have written in ink as well as in conventional cuneiform on clay. We know that there were many WOODEN WRITING BOARDS and PAPYRUS ROLLS in the library – none of which survive – and it is therefore likely that they were written in cuneiform in ink.

Slide 26

Excavation in a muddy well at the Assyrian city of Nimrud rescued many fragments of Assyrian ivories from the eighth century BC, including this wonderful hinged WRITING BOARD. The area inside the frame was filled with hot wax which, once cooled, could be impressed with cuneiform signs using a conventional stylus. The result was far lighter than clay, and we know of such early ‘books’ with two and three leaves. The flat prepared area to take the wax was scratched to enhance the grip. Some fragments of wax still adhere to the panel and show that the subject of the original inscription was fortune-telling omens.

Slide 27

An Assyrian sculpture depicting one scribe writing a tablet with a stylus and the other writing in ink on a papyrus roll, either in Akkadian or Aramaic. It is also possible that he was drawing for some official record.

Slide 28

The historic fall of Assyria in 612 BC meant widespread destruction in the city, including the rooms where the royal library was kept. All the tablets excavated there were broken or shattered, and some showed signs of great heat showing that the invaders set fire to everything. The edge of this tablet has bubbled and is partly vitrified. A library of clay documents, however, is the only kind where fire is not necessarily dreaded; most of the Nineveh tablets were baked and made tougher, unlike the thousands of precious scrolls in GREEK stored in the great library at ALEXANDRIA, utterly destroyed by fire in about 48 BC.

Slide 29

The front and back of a tablet brought to the British Museum by a member of the public for examination. It turned out to the oldest known version of the Flood Story, dating to about 1800 BC. It describes the ARK that had to be built in full detail with shape, size and quantities of materials. The boat was to be round! The important contents of this tablet led to the experimental rebuilding of the boat in INDIA directly according to the tablet’s information, as well as a published book by the speaker, The Ark Before Noah, and a television documentary! The book is at this moment being translated into Chinese!

Slide 30

A triumphant view of the reconstructed giant round boat or CORACLE built according to the cuneiform ‘recipe’ on the tablet. The vessel floated beautifully and caused great excitement among all the Indian workmen who had laboured for many months under difficult circumstances to build it.

Slide 31

The oldest MAP OF THE WORLD, produced by a Babylonian COSMOGRAPHER in about 600 BC at Babylon. It shows that they believed the world was round, either a disc or a ball (we cannot tell which). The world was surrounded by a ring of bitter water. The Mesopotamian heartland is shown inside, with the Euphrates River running north to south, and Babylon marked, as well as other cities. The map is most concerned with what existed BEYOND THE KNOWN WORLD. There were eight cosmic mountains, each with its story and strange inhabitants. On one of the mountains, according to Babylonian ideas, the Ark from the Flood Story came to rest. The speaker succeeded in joining a small fragment of tablet to the Map Tablet some years ago, filling in a gap. This fragment depicts one of these cosmic mountains and it is labelled in cuneiform THE GREAT WALL. Unfortunately this cannot be your Great Wall as other cuneiform texts show that the tradition in Mesopotamia goes back to the third millennium BC

Slide 32

A school tablet from Babylon written in about 500 BC that shows us bilingual pupils, knowing both Akkadian and Aramaic. Here the children, who were fluent in writing cuneiform, were asked by the teacher to find one sign for each of the letters of the Aramaic Alphabet. Cuneiform as we have seen can only convey syllables and cannot write consonants alone, so ‘d,’ for example, has to be written with the sign DA. The spellings suggest that the children learned that alphabet much like young children today, pronouncing the SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS NOT THE NAMES OF THE LETTERs (i.e. ‘a’ not ‘alpha’). We can see that the letters did have names, for one letter, ‘ayin, gives the name in full, a-a-nu, instead of just ‘a.’

Slide 33

This Babylonian tablet was written down in 177 BC by a famous astronomer, and contains rules for playing a board game – sometimes called the ROYAL GAME OF UR, with dice and pieces. Below is shown an example of the board for this same game made about 2300 years earlier for a Sumerian royal family. The rules show that this was an exciting and unpredictable race game, which was played all over the ancient world and can be played with much pleasure today.

Slide 34

Part of an illustrated manual written by an EXORCIST to treat patients suffering from MIGRAINE. The demon that brought migraine could enter the ear of a sleeper. Here the ritual requires making a figure of a Great Sage or Wise King out of clay, sitting on his throne and holding royal regalia. This figure is to be set up at the head of the bed and will deter the approach of evil. At the same time a second figure is to be made, the king’s Vizier, who has outstretched hands and is mounted on a pole. Apparently when flicked with the fingers buy the exorcist the figure spins round and frightens off the demon like a scarecrow in a field frightens birds. The drawing is of exceptional detail and skill. Drawing on clay likewise requires the hand of a master scribe.

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Greek scholars at Babylon. Greek scholars visited their Babylon counterparts at the end of the first millennium BC, attracted by their reputation as astronomers, mathematicians and doctors. A good deal of knowledge was transmitted in this way, and many of the accumulated observations and discoveries of the ancient Mesopotamians passed into Greek, just at the time when cuneiform writing was beginning to disappear. This process is exemplified in the two images here. The tablet is a EPHEMERIS or ASTRONOMICAL TABLE that records movement of the MOON for the years 104-102 BC. Below is a first century AD fragment of GREEK PAPYRUS written in ink, in which the same very unusual list of numbers occurs. This was undoubtedly copied from a cuneiform tablet into alphabetic Greek by a Greek and later studied and recopied at home by Greek scholars. The Mesopotamian numbers are SEXAGESIMAL (not decimal), i.e. they count in SIXTIES (not tens). This explains why we have measures of 60 seconds, 60 minutes and 360 degrees today; all the knowledge that the Greeks exported from Babylon relied on counting in sixties and that feature was passed in turn to us!

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A Greek studies in the Academy at Babylon. Determined to share all this carefully stored ancient knowledge, some Greeks made a brave start on learning cuneiform in the traditional schoolroom way, starting with word lists. Here the Sumerian and Akkadian words for ‘canal,’ which are written in cuneiform on the front of the tablet, are written out phonetically in Greek on the back as a kind of crib. This is a miraculous record of how the words were pronounced at the time and is like a wax cylinder or an old 78 record that we can play over and catch something of those long vanished voices.