Who DECIPHERED CUNEIFORM???

The Mystery of Cuneiform, or, Deciphering a Dead Script - how do we know what cuneiform even says, anyway? How did scholars get from complete confusion when confronted with these little wedges to being able to provide complete translations?
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Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian for the Absolute Beginner
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Did the Old Testament Endorse Slavery?
Joshua Bowen (2020)
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Bibliography and Sources:
Archives in Context, Traders, Travellers, Treasure hunters and the birth of Near Eastern Archaeology (bit.ly/2xzS4gh).
British Museum, Writing (bit.ly/2LITVaG)
Burnouf, M. E. 1836. 'Mémoire sur deux inscriptions cunéiformes trouvées près d'Hamadan et qui font maintenant partie des papiers du dr Schulz' (bit.ly/2YCUPt6).
Cathcart, K. J. 2011. 'The Earliest Contributions to the Decipherment of Sumerian and Akkadian' (bit.ly/2JnxDKc).
CDLI:wiki, Decipherment of Cuneiform (bit.ly/2yGyobH)
Cooper, J. 1991. 'Posing the Sumerian Question: Race and Scholarship in the Early History of Assyriology'.
Finkel, I. and J. Taylor, 2015. 'Cuneiform'.
Foster, B. 2006. 'The Beginnings of Assyriology in the United States' (bit.ly/2xCNC0a).
Fox Talbot, H. 1861. 'Translation of Some Assyrian Inscriptions', in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 18 p. 35-105 (bit.ly/2XFioVP).
Fox Talbot, W. H., E. Hincks, J, Oppert, and H. C. Rawlinson, 1861. 'Comparative Inscriptions', in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 18 p. 150-219 (bit.ly/2XFiyMV).
Grotefend, G. F. 1815. 'Des Inschriften von Persepolis', in Ideen uber die Politik, den Verkehr und den Handel der vornehmsten V. Lker der Alten Welt', vol. 1 (bit.ly/32f354H).
Herbert, T. 1638. 'Some Yeares Travels Into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique Describing Especially the Two Famous Empires, the Persian and Great Mogull' (bit.ly/2G3jCPw).
Hincks, E. 1846. 'On the three Kinds of Persepolitan Writing, and on the Babylonian Lapidary Characters', in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 21 p. 233-248 (bit.ly/2Jn2why).
Hincks, E. 1846. 'On the First and Second Kinds of Persepolitan Writing', in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 21 p. 114-131 (bit.ly/2XQScXo).
Hincks, E. 1849. 'On the Khorsabad Inscriptions', in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 22 p. 3-72 (bit.ly/2LHEhwn)
Hincks, E. 1849. 'On the Assyrio-Babylonian Phonetic Characters', in the Transations of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 22 p. 293-370 (bit.ly/2xzIoSR)
Hincks, E. 1857. 'On the relation between the newly-discovered Accadian Language and the Indo-European, Semitic, and Egyptian Languages; with remarks on the original values of certain Semitic Letters, and on the state of the Greek Alphabet at different periods', in the Report of the Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science p. 134- 143 (bit.ly/2Jmel7L).
Kuhrt, A. 2007. 'The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period' (bit.ly/2NGIS4y)
Larsen, M. T. 1996. 'The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land, 1840-1860'.
Larsen, M. T. 1997. 'Hincks Versus Rawlinson: The decipherment of the cuneiform system of writing: The decipherment of the cuneiform system of writing', in Ultra terminum vagari: Scritti in onore di Carl Nylander. p. 339-356.
Lassen, C. 1836. 'Die altpersischen Keil-Inschriften von Persepolis' (bit.ly/30iFJJF).
Meade, C. W. 1974. 'Road to Babylon: Development of U.S. Assyriology' (bit.ly/2XARKrU0).
Niebuhr, C. 1778. 'Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern, Volume 2' (bit.ly/2Xxa2dP).
ORACC, Lexical Texts (bit.ly/2XvCcpr)
Pallis, S. A. 1956. 'The Antiquity of Iraq' (bit.ly/2JBSw3g).
Purchas, S. 1614. 'Purchas his pilgrimage : or Relations of the world and the religions observed in all ages and places discovered, from the creation unto this present. In foure parts' (bit.ly/2xDz7t6).
Rawlinson, H. C. 1847. 'The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun, decyphered and translated; with a Memoir on Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions in general, and on that of Behistun in Particular', in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. x, o. 187-349.
Music: Brak Bnei Original Composition

[@DigitalHammurabi]

Image credits: Cuneiform tablet - bit.ly/2JrBHYA Tachar, Persepolis - bit.ly/2NGGmLq Palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad - bit.ly/30l7BN7 Nineveh reconstruction - bit.ly/2LKc2NF Trilingual inscription - bit.ly/2Ld26N4 Behistun inscription - bit.ly/2Jnw7Yw Behistun inscription - bit.ly/2Jnw7Yw Behistun inscription (scale) - bit.ly/2Xu6uxE Behistun illustration - bit.ly/2XyAYdg Behistun illustration 2 - bit.ly/2LLsexZ Ganjnameh inscriptions - bit.ly/2S79A4P Xerxes' inscription - bit.ly/30kqjo7 Tablet deposit of Darius I - bit.ly/2LLqBQT Apadana inscription - bit.ly/2xEvRh3 Old Persian inscription - bit.ly/2LbrLpt Rawlinson - bit.ly/2Xx2TKj Layard - bit.ly/2NQaggG Niebuhr - bit.ly/2XAJ7mg Fox Talbot - bit.ly/2JvvkDH Oppert - bit.ly/2S3DbMt Grotefend - bit.ly/2Jo1p1p Garcia de Silva - bit.ly/2XAzfcb Black obelisk, complete - bit.ly/2XROwVc Black obelisk, detail - bit.ly/2L9wfgc Lexical tablet - bit.ly/2XAVdGW Lexical tablet - bit.ly/2LHPEo4

[@chroniclesoflucifer]

Just recently started learning how to write cuneiform. Searching for youtube channels who provide references and yours is very professionally put together. Thank you!!

[@ruadhan6707]

I can barely imagine the paragon of a mentality it would take, at that period in history, at that period in science, and linguistics to be able to deduce that a writing system for one language must not have been designed for that language, but for another, as yet, unknown language without modern survivor or daughter language populations of that original language upon which to base that deduction. Thank you for this concise, but thorough history of the recovery of cuneiform.

[@DigitalHammurabi]

You're very welcome - and I entirely agree. The people who worked on this (especially Hincks) truly were exceptional scholars.

[@JMM33RanMA]

@@DigitalHammurabi Having been a university professor, I was not surprised by the catty comments and turf fights. Academic office politics is a well known curse! The program I was teaching in, at the university's Japan Campus, was actually killed, the Japan campus too, as a result of such short-sighted feuding [sigh!] and the dean was forced into early retirement. That was a 3-way fight for control by the History, English and ESL Departments. I hope [despite the history] that Near-Eastern Studies, Assyriology, Semitic Languages, etc. are less prone to turf fights now.

[@jackvolex9769]

History Is a Lie: The Behistun Inscription Is Fake. The Persian History is all a big lie. See the below video! It destroys the main and only strong source and claim about Persian history! All those stories about Persian empire is a Lie. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJjFhamGmbebn80

[@doelbaughman1924]

@@JMM33RanMA And you have the Tesla-Edison 'competition'. Humans. I'm not in academia, but that makes me sad. How far could we be if we could set our egos and our niches aside? I am Hobby linguist with 5 languages of various skill levels, and I agree with the OP. Using related languages to translate unknown texts would be insanely difficult in and of themselves. But to ascertain what Hinks did regarding cuneiform's origination from a language isolate? God, that's next-level shit right there. And my understanding is that the Society never recognized him like they did their buddy Rawlinson.

[@gloriosatierra]

More importantly we have information on Aſſur son of Sem. Aſſur built Ninive, Rekoboþ, Kale, and Reſen. Arphaxad was more docile. 🕯️📜✍🏼

[@Eagles4088]

it's still mind blowing to me how scholars were able to translate such ancient texts

[@johannjohann6523]

Best explanation so far for Cunei form of writing and it being deciphered. I was always curious since we never found a Rosette stone like with did for ancient Egyptian.

[@IAmAlgolei]

4:10 That German fellow seems rather unconcerned about what's happening in the background. Must be pretty confident in that spear he's holding.

[@pansepot1490]

Great video on a truly fascinating subject. I was particularly impressed to learn that cuneiform has been used for close to 4,000 years!

[@DigitalHammurabi]

Thank you so much! Cuneiform is awesome, and I'm always amazed by the sheer longevity of it as a writing system.

[@Demolish_DoctrineRichardMadsen]

@Digital Hammurabi I'd really no idea how new your science is until this video. Great show. Peace.

[@DigitalHammurabi]

It surprised me too when I first started! I'd assumed it was contemporary with the study of Greece and Rome...but not so much!

[@russellmillar7132]

Megan. this is brilliant! So much history with the major players...inspired me to watch twice. It's a marvel that deciphering this script, along with hieroglyphics, the Mayan codices etc. has increased the breadth of written history by thousands of years beyond what was accessible a mere few hundred years ago. Amazing innit?

[@richardenos3370]

Wonderful presentation!

[@BizmasterStudios]

Thank you! Loved it! Without the time to study these things (yet) you have been so informative!

[@urielzahriel-official-4942]

So glad I stumbled upon your channel have been deeply Facilitated by All these Ancient Cultures for Many Years and my College Years and my Degree Study in Cultural Anthropology/ Archeology

[@DigitalHammurabi]

So glad to have you with us!

[@JCW7100]

Love your videos so much! :)

[@JMM33RanMA]

I thoroughly enjoy your work. I think you should know that despite being subscribed and having "rung the bell" I am not receiving notifications of your video releases. I have redone both and hope to begin being notified again. A popular ancient tech KZbinr brought up Sitchin, and pointed out his absurd theories but didn't seem to know that Sitchin really made up most of what he said and wrote. I took the liberty of posting this address so that anyone interested in Cuneiform and the translations of Sumerian, Akkadian, etc. would be able to access your amazing videos. Best wishes, and keep up the fantastic work!

[@DigitalHammurabi]

Thank you Jay - both for the comment and sharing our work, and for the heads up about the notification issues! I'll see if there's anything on our end we can do to help with that latter bit :)

[@JMM33RanMA]

@@DigitalHammurabi Thanks. I hope this won't result in your being subjected to attacks by Sitchinists and von Dummkopfists. I just feel that people with real hard-won credentials should be consulted rather than mercenary frauds. I think the erratic notification may be either a KZbin issue or a Microsoft issue I have had three Microsoft "upgrades☹" to Win 7 during the past month and have been experiencing other issues as well, particularly Erratic Wireless Mouse Syndrome™! I mentioned it so that you could inquire on chats if others have had issues. Since your message came through, perhaps the re-sub & re-ring protocol worked! Best wishes and do keep up the good work.

[@valmarsiglia]

Wonderful presentation, thank you.

[@Zeupater]

Excellent video. 👍

[@JacquesMare]

Imagine what a soldier, diplomat, teacher, scientist etc. can all achieve together....

[@salamut2202]

They seem to have a bit of similarity with Hanzi in Sinitic languages while their adaptation to more phonetic forms similar to Kanji and Hiragana employed by Nihingo

[@pansepot1490]

The “skeptical” scholar mentioned at around 13:18 must have been a moron, or not English. How could he find difficult to believe that the same sign had different pronunciation when that happens all the time in English? Put, cut, cute, bury, colour, (and perhaps there’s more) same sign “u” and completely different pronunciations. That definitely causes a lot of confusion...

[@JMM33RanMA]

Not to mention that Japanese Kanji [漢字] can have at least 5 different pronunciations, depending on context. Modern Korean sometimes uses a different sound for the same character, but rarely: 金 Kim [family name], kum [gold]. It's a bit more complicated than that, but it is obvious that the Eurocentric thinking was at fault.

[@jimmykornelijegunnarsson4265]

Could be perhaps he had knowledge of for example ancient Hebrew wherein such is a rarity. After all, one needs to consider the place and time where this research was conducted, in a region wherein phonology is rather 1:1 scripture, and also during a period of time of lack of knowledge of historical context.

[@thomasmolitor5486]

A small error in your reading of the text at 14:13 You said "understanding" instead of the word "writing" in the second to the last sentence. I realize this is rather trivial, but thought I would point it out and let you decide. Love your stuff... =)

[@alesspluss]

You don't know how long I was looking for a video with this info, I had a long journey in different books about the cuneiform discovery history, thanks a lot! Note: Iirc there was an hebrew who discovered cuneiform inscriptions after the spanish one, around 1100. But I can't find it rn :(

[@rchuso]

I actually recognised several of those glyphs - I have them all on flash-cards.

[@BeenDownSoLong...]

And remember: Weebles wobble but they don't fall down. Put that on a tee shirt in cuneiform.

[@DigitalHammurabi]

roflmao

[@gregvandenberg2859]

Lol I think I would buy that shirt!!

[@JMM33RanMA]

There is a pseudo-cuneiform font that just disguises what is typed in. If you want to mess around with it and make T-shirts to drive real cuneiform readers go crazy it's available on some Free Font sites. [It doesn't paste in here as cuneiform.]

[@mahadeva666]

it is amazing the time they must have spent to even be able to accomplish what they did. the future looks bright for what we can learn from the ancient Mesopotamians.

[@PeterRevesz]

The decipherment of another syllabic script, the Minoan Linear A, used different techniques. Its decipherment is described here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpqvqoFviZemqrs

[@MartinThau]

Makes me so interested in the field. Why the hurry though? Please speak slower.

[@maophantulaotkasmil44]

🌿

[@roermy]

And so all those little arrows really mean something?

[@Gio-mi3hd]

imagine in the next 5000 year from now on future human would be like "how the f you read alphabet?"

[@borisviolin633]

😀👍

[@ciaronsmith4995]

Far from certain. Grotefend made assumptions that are unproven in the first place. You must be an Iranian speaker imo to fully understand these inscriptions.