- 1170 first Euro. study of Mesopotamia - saw Ninevah outside of Mosul

- Excavated by the Germans - First systematic arch. at Assur

Site of Telloh (1870s) - Led to the understanding Sumerians - culture, lang, his. all the way back to ~2500 BCE - Realized the Bible didn’t have memory of this - Sumerians already lost to Bible times o This started detaching Meso arch. from Biblical arch.

- by Layard 1850's - Neo-Syrian sculptures and IA monumental sites - Led to Syria being an offshoot of Meso.

- by the Germans - really important because the pottery - 6th-5th mil. beyond Bible dating

- Lawrence of Arabia and Wooley - arch. political and just for the Brit. museum

- Babylon 1899 - starts second phase of Syrian arch. - Look at cuneiform as source instead of Bible

- Assur 1903 - scientific approach rather than Bible

Lecture 2- Sources Flashcards by Sarah Lisowski

Benjamin of Tudela

1170 first Euro. study of Mesopotamia

- saw Ninevah outside of Mosul

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Paul-Emile Botta

• Paul-Émile Botta (Mar 1843-Oct 44)

        o	Found many remains & wall reliefs 
              	Later recognized as Sargon II’s castle, 
                    centre of the “city of Sargon”
        o	Thought he was actually exploring Nineveh
               caused lot of sensation in Euro
              	So British also sent their own (Layard) to 
                   Mosul = started French vs. English 
                  competition

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Henry Layard

• Austen Henry Layard (Dec 1845 – Jun 47)

o Worked at Nimrud (another site not far from Mosul)
o Discovered NW palace of Ashurnasirpal II, South
palace of Esarhaddon, central palace of Tiglath-
Pileser II- many reliefs found overall

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Kuyunjik/Corsova

Excavated by the Germans

- First systematic arch. at Assur

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Site of Telloh

Site of Telloh (1870s)

Led to the understanding Sumerians - culture, lang,
his. all the way back to ~2500 BCE
Realized the Bible didn’t have memory of this -
Sumerians already lost to Bible times

o ** This started detaching Meso arch. from Biblical arch.

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Tell Ajaja

by Layard 1850’s
Neo-Syrian sculptures and IA monumental sites
Led to Syria being an offshoot of Meso.

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Halaf

by the Germans
really important because the pottery
- 6th-5th mil. beyond Bible dating

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Karkemis

Lawrence of Arabia and Wooley

- arch. political and just for the Brit. museum

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Robert Koldeway

Babylon 1899
starts second phase of Syrian arch.
Look at cuneiform as source instead of Bible

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Walter Andrae

Assur 1903

- scientific approach rather than Bible

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Characteristics of Second Phase (Syria)

• Consideration of historical problems – to be the
reason they go dig
o Problems raised by epigraphical sources
collected from the First Phase
• Refining excavation techniques
o Good technique affected the amount &
quality of data = so this was important
• Registration of each artefact (not just as art pieces)
• Attention to architectural superimpositions
o Almost like stratigraphy = the sequence of the
architecture was taken into account and
recorded (NOT the actual earth/geological
method)
Wheeler & Kenyon introduce the
geological way, later
Can see in literature this difference b/w
architectural stratigraphy & geological
stratigraphy
• Effective evaluation of context correlations = the
BIGGEST STEP (basis of arch. finds)
o Ex: taking into consideration where a
coin was found (in a home, a garbage pit,
a palace, etc.)

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Tell Hariri

Mari (1930’s)

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Ras Shamra

Ugarit (1930’s)

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Al Mina

by Wooley

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Upper Khabur

by Max Mallowan and Christie

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Robert Braidwood

Uni. of Chicago

- Amuq valley in the 1930’s and 1990s

Hama

by the Danish

- established Syrian chronology

Salvage excavations

started in the 60’s- 80s
for the purpose of preservation
focus on small sites and settlement distribution
proto-Sumerian sites: Habuba Kabira, Jebel Aruda, Tel Qanas

First Phase in Anatolia

focused more on Greek and Roman sites

- Ephesus, Miletus, Pergamum

Second Phase in Anatolia

different than in Syria
- influenced more by Turkish politics/national identity
- artifacts need to stay in Turkey
- Less Biblical/ more scientific

Bogazkoy Hattusa

(1906-1912) excavation

• Very successful = 10,000 clay tablets, plans of state buildings (royal acropolis at Buyukkale), great temple, city walls w/ 5 gates
• Texts found = written in steel & sephred lang. attested into Armarn docs studied (???)
o Others in Akkadian known in Assyrian &
Babylonian texts
o Found this was the capital of Hatti
o Treaty b/w the king Hattušili III & Rameses II
(dated 21st year of the pharaoh)
• The discoveries showed the Kingdom of Hatti in LBA was equal to Egypt, Assyria, & Babylonia
Kingdom of Hatti (~1400 BCE) had violent end
o From LBA to EIA = chronology started to fall
into place

Tel Amarna tablets

1888 in Egypt

- showed mid 14th c. BC, king of Hatti made deals with 2 pharaohs

Karatepe

1947, discovery of bilingual text at Karatepe - helped decipher Hittite hieroglyphs
- Written in both Phoenician & Hittite

3 types of texts

archival
- admin- could be thrown out after a few years
monumental
- smaller collection but good for reconstruction of
  history
Literary (library texts)
- actually collection of religion, myth stories, local
  traditions
- ex. library of Ashurbanipal

Deeds/Annals of Hattusili I

- First example of analytic texts o Records of deeds of the king each year (the wars/victories, etc.) - Usually these texts would be “Monumental texts” o Inscription on his statue o BUT we only have clay tablets - which are 13th c. copies of original from 16th c.  Preserved in archives over the centuries -so ARCHIVAL, not monumental exactly

Development of Cuneiform

- 3300 BCE/ created as a admin tool - derived from clay bullae with symbols/ tokens - growth of the centralised economy makes tracking of goods necessary so tokens turn into cuneiform

Cuneiform and Sumerian Language

• Writing was both logograms as well as phonetic pronunciations o In the beginning = writing didn’t reflect “the language” exactly – just script of ideas & things o BUT later = script distinctly represented people who SPOKE Sumerian • Akkadian had their phonetic script, but they also used some Sumerian logograms o Similar to how we used 1 2 3 • There was change in orientation of script o Started from top to bottom (right to left) - then turned to horizontally from left to right • The stylus also changed

Sumerian language

- 3000 -1900 - Don't know origin - Became like Latin to us

Akkadian language

- 2700-100- longest running - Eastern Semitic - different dialects like Eblaite, Babylonian, Assyrian - different phases: Pre-sargonid (Mari), Sargonid (old Akkadian), Ur III Akkadian (Babylonian)

Hurrian language

- 2300-1350 - only lang related to Uratian • Most texts of this lang. comes from Hittite archives in Anatolia o The archive found at El Armarna (all letters in Akkadian) – ONE LETTER IN HURRIAN  Letter from Mittani king to Amenhotep III (~1380 BCE)

Examples of Hurrian text

- bronze lion from Urkes (oldest) | - trilingual text from Ugarit (Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrin)

Hittite and other Indo-Euro Languages

• Different types of writing: o Cuneiform – in different languages  All of them Indo-Euro language found in Hittite archives  Also used non Indo-Euro o Anatolian Hieroglyphs o Alphabetic scripts (only in 1st. mill) • Hittite (& Akkadian) = best known languages of NE o Hittite is Indo-Euro • Cuneiform was in Anatolia before the Hittites o Written in Old Assyrian  Correspondence b/w Assyrian merchants w/ their homeland • Many bilingual texts in Hurrian & Hittite • Cuneiform = Hittite official admin script o When Hittite fell - cuneiform stopped o BUT the hieroglyphic script continued

Alphabetic languages

- 2nd and 1st mil • Mostly Semitic languages • Alphabetic script invented in the Levant – influenced by Egyptian demotic • Anatolian Hieroglyph o NOT influenced by Egyptian hieroglyph o Writing system was the same as cuneiform,  A mixed script of logographic & syllabic o Created probably by Luwians • First alphabet attested from Ugarit o Tablet with an abecedary Ugaritic alphabet (14th-13th c.)

Cuneiform and the Persian Empire

*** cuneiform so prestigious, Persians adopted it too *** • They created 2 cuneiform types o To write in Old Persian (language of Achaemenid dynasty) and Elamite (Old Iranian language) • BUT they also use Babylonian & Akkadian cuneiform

Behistun inscription

- trilingual inscription on a relief of Darius (521) - in Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian w/Babylonian cuneiform - helped decifer Akkadian and cuneiform