1857 – The Royal Asiatic Society TestThe Decisive Breakthrough in Cuneiform Decipherment
Here is the full English version of the next slide for your presentation on the decipherment of cuneiform. I've written it in a clean, ready-to-use format for PowerPoint/Google Slides — with title, main content, bullet points, key quote, and speaker notes. It's fully in English, expanded slightly for clarity and flow based on historical details.Slide: 1857 – The Royal Asiatic Society TestThe Decisive Breakthrough in Cuneiform Decipherment
"The jury declared itself satisfied, and the decipherment of Akkadian cuneiform was adjudged a fait accompli."
— Royal Asiatic Society committee report, 1857Recommended Visuals for the Slide:
"This 1857 'competition' was the moment when doubt turned into certainty. The close agreement among four independent scholars — working without collaboration — proved the system was sound. Thanks to this validation, entire libraries of Mesopotamian knowledge (laws, myths, letters, royal chronicles) became accessible for the first time in over 2,000 years."If you'd like adjustments (shorter version, more details on differences in translations, next slide on post-1857 developments like Sumerian decipherment, or Hebrew version again), just let me know!
- Background: By the mid-19th century, the decipherment of Akkadian cuneiform remained controversial. Scholars debated readings, and skepticism persisted in academic and public circles.
- The Challenge: In early 1857, William Henry Fox Talbot (a British polymath and photography pioneer) proposed a public "test" to prove the reliability of the decipherment method.
The Royal Asiatic Society selected a recently discovered, lengthy inscription — the octagonal clay prism of King Tiglath-Pileser I (reigned c. 1114–1076 BCE), containing ~800 lines of his royal annals (military campaigns, hunts, building projects, etc.). - The Participants (four leading scholars translated independently):
- Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (British army officer, key figure in the Behistun inscription)
- Edward Hincks (Irish clergyman and philologist, early pioneer in Akkadian grammar)
- Jules Oppert (French-German Assyriologist, brilliant in comparative philology)
- William Henry Fox Talbot (British inventor and amateur Assyriologist who initiated the test)
- The Process: Each scholar received a lithographic copy of the inscription (without knowing others' work). They produced independent translations and submitted them in sealed envelopes to the Royal Asiatic Society in London.
- The Outcome: On May 25–27, 1857, a committee opened the envelopes and compared the results.
The translations showed remarkable agreement on essential points — proper names, key events, grammatical structures, and overall meaning — despite minor differences in phrasing or interpretation (e.g., "wild buffaloes" vs. "wild elephants" in one hunting passage). - Historical Significance: The jury declared the decipherment reliable. This event is widely regarded as the "first major breakthrough" (or "fait accompli") in reading Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets. It opened the floodgates to translating thousands of Akkadian texts from Assyria and Babylonia.
"The jury declared itself satisfied, and the decipherment of Akkadian cuneiform was adjudged a fait accompli."
— Royal Asiatic Society committee report, 1857Recommended Visuals for the Slide:
- Central image: The Tiglath-Pileser I clay prism (British Museum BM 91033 — octagonal, multi-columned object)
- Small portraits arranged in a square: Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert, Talbot
- Icon: Green checkmark (✓) or "Confirmed 1857" stamp over the title
- Optional: Timeline arrow showing progression from Behistun (1830s–1840s) → 1857 test → full Assyriology
"This 1857 'competition' was the moment when doubt turned into certainty. The close agreement among four independent scholars — working without collaboration — proved the system was sound. Thanks to this validation, entire libraries of Mesopotamian knowledge (laws, myths, letters, royal chronicles) became accessible for the first time in over 2,000 years."If you'd like adjustments (shorter version, more details on differences in translations, next slide on post-1857 developments like Sumerian decipherment, or Hebrew version again), just let me know!
תגובות