What was the significance of Mesopotamian tablets?

What was the significance of Mesopotamian tablets?

When the ancient cuneiform tablets of Mesopotamia were discovered and deciphered in the late 19th century CE, they would literally transform human understanding of history. Prior to their discovery, the Bible was considered the oldest and most authoritative book in the world.

What types of written tablets were found in Mesopotamia?

Assyrian cuneiform was itself adapted to write the Indo-European Hittite language sometime around the 17th century BC. The other languages with significant cuneiform corpora are the Semitic Eblaite, Elamite, Hurrian, Luwian, Persian and Urartian. The latest known date for a cuneiform tablet is from 75 AD in Assyria.

What did Mesopotamia write with?

Mesopotamian languages in the cuneiform script are mostly written on clay tablets, though they could also be carved on stone (example here). Being incredibly durable, clay tablets have been recovered in thousands at archaeological sites from the Mediterranean to Bahrain to Iran. More are found by the year.

What is a Sumerian cuneiform tablet?

Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet. Sumerian cuneiform is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. First appearing in the 4th millennium BC in what is now Iraq, it was dubbed cuneiform (‘wedge-shaped’) because of the distinctive wedge form of the letters, created by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay.

What are the Sumerian texts?

The corpus of Sumerian texts is unique in the Ancient World. It includes literary and mythological compositions, songs, love poetry, liturgical compositions, law collections, royal inscriptions, magical texts, and scholarly works, alongside vast numbers of economic, administrative, and legal documents.

What is Mesopotamian cuneiform?

Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. 3500-3000 BCE . It is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians and the greatest among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk which advanced the writing of cuneiform c. 3200 BCE.