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Cuneiform script is the earliest known writing system in the world. Knowledge of cuneiform was lost until AD 1835, when Henry Rawlinson, an English army officer, found some inscriptions on a cliff at Behistun in Persia. Carved in the reign of King Darius of Persia they consisted of identical texts in three languages: Old Persian, Babylonian and Elamite. After translating the Persian, Rawlinson began to decipher the others. By 1851 he could read 200 Babylonian signs.

Before Rawlinson, scholars tried to figure out what the words on ancient clay tablets meant, but they had no guidelines. Georg Grotefund, a high school teacher in Germany, was sure the cuneiform wedges represented some type of alphabet. Using two different inscriptions from a gate at Persepolis Grotefund isolated what he believed were royal names. He was right, but he couldn't really do more without a kind of Rosetta Stone for cuneiform.

The Rosetta Stone (with its three inscriptions in hieroglyphs, demotic Egyptian and Greek which all say the same thing) was rediscovered in Rashid (Rosetta), Egypt in 1799 by Napoleon's army. Because a young French Egyptologist, Jean Francois Champollion, could work with two of the three languages, he was able to unlock the secret to the third language: Egyptian hieroglyphics.

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Related Questions

Who deciphered cuneiform?

Henry Rawlinson


Who first deciphered cuneiform?

Henry Rawlinson


Write about cuneiform script?

The Sumerians were the first to devise a script. This is knew as the cuneiform script. This in the from of pictographs signs, symbols and pictures which denoted objects. Henry Rawlinson deciphered the Sumerian script......


Can we read cuneiform's?

Yes, modern scholars have deciphered cuneiform script, which was used by ancient civilizations such as the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonians. By studying and comparing inscriptions on various artifacts, archaeologists and linguists have been able to understand and translate cuneiform writings.


Who deciphered the behistun rock?

The Behistun Inscription was deciphered by British army officer and diplomat Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1835. Rawlinson's work with the inscription was instrumental in the decipherment of Old Persian cuneiform script.


How many symbols where there in the cuneiform writing?

Cuneiform script consisted of several hundred unique symbols, called cuneiform signs, that represented both syllables and entire words. The total number of signs varied throughout history and across different regions where cuneiform was used, but it typically ranged from 600 to over 1,000 signs.


Is it language science?

The principles of science may certainly be applied to the study of language. Code-breaking would be an example at the extreme. But Cuneiform and Mayan were deciphered using the principles of hypothesis testing.


What type of writing did sumerian scribes use?

The system of writing developed by the Sumerians was called Cuneiform.


How did cuneiform change over the history of Mesopotamia?

Cuneiform became more abstract and changed from being just simple pictographs to becoming wedge-shaped lines.


What is an ancient sumerians technological achievements in history?

it is cuneiform because it teaches people how to communicate .


What is the importance of cuneiform?

Cuneiform is one of the earliest writing systems in human history, developed by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. It played a crucial role in recording history, literature, and administrative matters in ancient civilizations such as the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Cuneiform also contributed to the development of other writing systems and influenced the cultural and intellectual advancement of societies in the ancient Near East.


When did the sumerians develop cuneiform writing?

The Sumerians began developing cuneiform writing around 3200 BC. It is considered one of the earliest known writing systems in human history.