המשך הפרזנטציה – השלב הבא:This period shifts from speculation to evidence-based progress, with Old Persian serving as the "entry point" for Mesopotamian languages.Decipherment of Elamite and Akkadian (Mid-19th Century)1840s: Using Behistun's trilingual format, Rawlinson and Edward Hincks (Irish clergyman) begin deciphering Elamite (a syllabary with ~100-130 signs) and Babylonian (Akkadian, with ~500-700 signs, logo-syllabic system)
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Hincks (1846) identifies the logo-syllabic system (mix of phonetic syllables, logograms/ideograms, and determinatives) and recognizes Akkadian as a Semitic language, related to Hebrew and Arabic (through grammatical features like roots, cases, and pronouns such as anāku = "I"). Rawlinson copies the Babylonian text fully in 1847 (published 1851), but the crucial early breakthroughs on Akkadian come from independent work on other inscriptions (e.g., Persepolis, cylinder seals), not solely from Behistun's Babylonian column (which arrived late). Key milestones in the 1840s–1850s:
Once Akkadian is readable, thousands of clay tablets from Nineveh, Nimrud, and other sites (e.g., Ashurbanipal's library) become accessible → birth of Assyriology as a discipline. This opens Mesopotamian history, literature (Epic of Gilgamesh), law (Hammurabi), and science – no longer speculation, but direct evidence from the ancient world.השלב הבא המומלץ:
The Birth of Assyriology & Major Discoveries (1850s–1870s)
- 1846: Hincks publishes on the "First and Second Kinds of Persepolitan Writing" (Old Persian & Elamite), recognizing polyphony (signs with multiple values) and syllabic spellings (e.g., ta-ash instead of tash).
- Late 1840s: Hincks and Rawlinson independently advance Babylonian/Akkadian readings; Hincks identifies numerals, pronouns, and Semitic patterns.
- 1851–1852: Rawlinson publishes his Babylonian Behistun translation; collaboration grows with Julius Oppert and others.
- 1857: The "test" – four scholars (Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert, Talbot) translate independently an Assyrian inscription (Tiglath-Pileser I); close matches confirm the decipherment as reliable → official "victory" for Akkadian cuneiform.
Once Akkadian is readable, thousands of clay tablets from Nineveh, Nimrud, and other sites (e.g., Ashurbanipal's library) become accessible → birth of Assyriology as a discipline. This opens Mesopotamian history, literature (Epic of Gilgamesh), law (Hammurabi), and science – no longer speculation, but direct evidence from the ancient world.השלב הבא המומלץ:
The Birth of Assyriology & Major Discoveries (1850s–1870s)
- Excavations by Layard, Botta, Rassam → flood of tablets.
- Decipherment of Sumerian (initially mistaken as "Akkadian" by Hincks/Rawlinson).
- Biblical connections (e.g., Jehu on Black Obelisk, 1851 by Hincks).
- Full unlocking of Mesopotamian civilization.
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