One of the most mysterious and ancient civilizations is considered to be Mesopotamia. So they called it the Greeks, but to us it is known as Mesopotamia. This is a territory that is located between two large waterways that give life to the region. One of them is the Tiger, the other is the Euphrates. There were huge cities with special laws, unique customs, religion and worldview. On this earth more than six thousand years ago a writing system was born, known as the cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia.
Why did they write with wedges?
Our ancestors were very observant, because this allowed them to survive in difficult conditions. And they also knew how to adapt to the world around them, to take everything that was needed from him. If in Egypt papyrus grew in abundance, and you could also get stones to knock your hieroglyphs on them, then this was not the case in Mesopotamia. But there was clay from which they built houses and made dishes. Residents saw how the tracks of animals are imprinted on wet material, so they tried to use it for recordings. But to draw complex characters on clay was inconvenient, it was much easier to squeeze dents on it with a sharp stick with a triangular base. So the famous cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia appeared, which brought to us many information about the mysterious people of the region.
Clay book
So, what is cuneiform writing, we figured it out. Now let's talk a little about what the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia wrote on. The "books" were different. If the clay pancake was intended for students' exercises in writing (and there were schools in the cities of Mesopotamia), then it was not dried. After classes, they simply erased what was written and the tablet was used again. But it could be dried in the sun, then the information was stored longer. Important tablets were burned on fire and stored in palaces.
Pupils who wanted to learn ancient literacy first learned how to make clay tablets. This is not a simple matter, since the material had many impurities from which it should be cleaned. Next, it was necessary to draw the lines with a rope so that the signs of the cuneiform writing lay flat. And only then did the scribe learn to squeeze out “letters”.
Mysterious Signs Spread
Clay was cheap material available to all segments of the population. Therefore, in Mesopotamia, writing was familiar not only to wealthy people and privileged castes (priests), but to commoners. This is probably why everyone wrote here, composed poems and poems, including those of a heroic nature.
Almost everyone today knows what cuneiform writing is. It was used very widely throughout the Middle East - the Sumerians, Assyrians, Persians, Babylonians. Perhaps this ancient writing system would be applied there today, but it had one major flaw. Clay books turned out to be too heavy and bulky, so it was difficult to transport them.
Cuneiform in Europe
The Old World learned what cuneiform writing is, more than three hundred years ago. For the first time, an Italian traveler named Pietro della Balle introduced the mysterious carnations to the world. He wrote a book about his wanderings in the Middle East and in it depicted a strange inscription that he saw on an clay tablet in Persia. Ancient cuneiform writing was very different from the alphabets that were used in Europe, so it was not even considered a writing system. But over time, clay tablets began to fall into the Western world more and more often. Therefore, they aroused interest among the public and scientists.
Archaeologists have discovered a huge number of clay tablets on the site of the former capital of Persia, the legendary Persepolis, burned by Alexander the Great and his beloved Athenian hetero Thais. As you know, clay only grows stronger from fire, so the most valuable library of antiquity has survived to this day. True, by this time no one could read the mysterious signs imprinted by skilled scribes.
The riddle is solved
The history of cuneiform writing has more than one thousand years. But those who put mysterious signs on clay tablets died long ago, and their knowledge was lost. Scientists, looking at ancient books, realized that it contained valuable information. But, alas, no one could read it. Attempts to decode wedges and carnations have been undertaken from the very beginning of the emergence of the science of assyriology. And finally, the key to the riddle was found! True, this happened quite recently, in the nineteenth century.
The first decryption attempts that bore fruit were made by the German linguist Georg Grothefend. He is often called the genius of one night, because he "on a bet" took up an impossible task and completed it. Then he returned to his craft - he worked as a teacher. But he laid the foundation for solving the cryptography.
In 1872, regardless of Grothefend, the English engraver George Smith was able to read a tablet that spoke of the Flood. The gods sent a flood, but they helped a man who, like the biblical Noah, saved people. This work later went into science under the title “Song of Gilgamesh”.
An invaluable contribution to this matter was made by Henry Rawlinson, military attache. At the risk of his life, he studied and copied the monumental inscriptions of Persian kings on the Behistun rock and on Mount Eland. They contained a large number of proper names (family trees of the kings), so they helped to unravel the three cuneiform systems, its three forms.
Instead of an epilogue
So, we figured out what cuneiform writing is, made a short trip to her homeland - to Mesopotamia. What else did this country remember that has long sunk into oblivion? The fact that, despite the past millennia, her traces still remained on mother earth. And in the consciousness of modern man, the traditions of those people who lived between the Tigris and the Euphrates still live. We all remember the famous city of Babylon, which was famous for its huge ramparts and ziggurats, richly decorated with gates and sculptures. The ruins of the famous tower, which the Bible speaks of, are still preserved in this city. But who does not know about Nineveh, the city where the Christian righteous did not want to go? It is impossible not to mention Assyria, whose warriors were not only skillful and courageous, but also very fierce. And, of course, about Persepolis, the cradle of the Persian Empire, from which the ashes remained.