Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/580

 576 CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS second class, ever be as fully accomplished as that of the other two kinds, it will undoubtedly throw much light on the origin and history of the writing. The Assyrians in adopting this system modified it to suit their own ideas, but it was not until the times of the Persians that it became an almost purely alphabetic system. In the Assyrian inscriptions the different groups of wedges represent, first, ideas, but having been adopted from a foreign people speaking a different language, the words which originally corresponded to those ideas were entirely dif- ferent from the Assyrian words representing the same ideas ; second, syllables, used in spell- ing words without any reference to the mean- ing of the characters as representatives of ideas. Thus a certain group of six wedges is used as an ideograph to denote "father" (Assyrian abu), but when used as a phonograph in spell- ing other words it represents the syllables at and ad. All the groups used as phonographs represent either vowels or consonants com- bined with vowels, that is, syllables, never consonants alone. Thus it will be seen that one of the difficulties to be overcome in trans- lating any given passage is to determine whether a group is used as an ideograph or a phono- graph. But the greatest difficulty, and the one which for a long time made many learned men suspicious in regard to the trustworthiness of all translations of Assyrian inscriptions, is the fact, now fully established, that the same char- acter as an ideograph often represents several different ideas, and as a phonograph several different syllables. Hence the correct inter- pretation in any case can be ascertained only by the most patient study and comparison of different inscriptions. For example, one group of three wedges stands in different inscriptions as an ideograph to represent the noun " coun- try " and the verb " to take ;" as a phonograph it represents the syllables mat, lat, sat, kur, nat : another group of three wedges differently arranged represents as an ideograph "light," "sun," "day," "sea;" as a phonograph the syllables ut, tarn, par, lah. Fortunately the Assyrians themselves have come to our aid. Among the clay tablets discovered are a large number written- in two vertical columns, the first of which contains ideographs, the second their meanings in phonographs. Other tablets are in three columns, the middle one generally containing the ideograph to be explained, the left-hand one its phonetic value, and the right- hand one its meaning in the Assyrian language. The Assyrians endeavored to remedy the am- biguity of their writing in a way of which the following is an example : When the character mentioned above is used to denote the sea (tihamti), a phonograph representing the syl- lable ti is placed after it ; when it stands for the sun (sansi), it is followed by a phonograph denoting the syllable si; and when it denotes the light (nara), it is followed by one denoting the syllable ra. The Assyrian language is Se- mitic, and exhibits the chief characteristics of that family. Thus it has the emphatic t and s; forms the feminine in t; has conjugations (kal, niphal, iftael, &c.) corresponding to those found in one or another of the other Semitic tongues ; and distinguishes the " construct state " of nouns. These are among the most marked characteristics of the Semitic langua' ges. It appears to be more nearly related to the Hebrew than any other. The contents of these records relate to almost everything con- nected with the history, the religion, the laws, the social life, and the science of the nation : lists of kings, accounts of their achievements in peace and war, laws regulating the domestio relations, chronological and astronomical tables, lists of plants and animals, private contracts in regard to land, slaves, and the sale and ex- change of property of all kinds ; in fact, some- thing in regard to almost every subject which can arouse our interest or excite our curiosity. Copies of vast numbers of them have been published, particularly by the British museum, under the superintendence of Rawlinson ; and many have been published with commentaries and translations by Oppert, Menant, and oth- ers. In the palace of Asshurnasirpal, king of Assyria about 900 B. C., in the city of Calah, the modern Nimrud, a large number of mural slabs were found by Layard, upon all of which was the same inscription in Assyrian cuneiform characters. Some of these slabs are now pre- served in the libraries of several colleges in the United States. The "Dickinson Nineveh Gal- lery" of Amherst college contains some of them, which were procured for the college by the Rev. Henry Lobdell. Photographs of the inscription on one of these slabs, accompanied by an original transliteration in Roman letters and an original literal translation into English, by the Rev. W. H. Ward, a graduate of the college, were presented by him as a jubilee offering to the college on the occasion of its semi-centennial anniversary in 1871. The photographs and manuscript are now in the college. The inscription recounts, in the usual style of oriental exaggeration, the military achievements of the king and the building of his palace. This is probably the first transla- tion of an Assyrian inscription made by an American scholar. One of the most interesting contributions to the literature of this subject was made by Mr. George Smith, of the British museum, in 1871. It consists of the cuneiform text of all the historical inscriptions in the Bri- tish museum relating to Asshurbanipal, king of Assyria about the middle of the 7th century B. C. The principal inscription is upon a ten- sided prism, and contains over 1,200 lines of cuneiform writing. Mr. Smith gives an inter- linear English translation and commentaries. In tins inscription are mentioned the conquest of Egypt by Esarhaddon, the father of As- shurbanipal, and the principal events of the reign of the latter. We also learn from it the Assyrian account of the kings of Egypt Tirhakah, Necho I., and Psammetichus I.,