Akkadian Cuneiform free essay sample

The texts in the royal Assyrian reliefs are written in Akkadian cuneiform. Invented in the Fertile Crescent region, cuneiform is inarguably the most ancient writing system ever known in human history. The writing system originates from relatively simple signs that were presumably coined around 3300B. C. for accounting purpose. Along with the development of civilization, economic productivity in the Fertile Crescent increased exponentially, leading to the expansion of trade even beyond the Mesopotamian region. First inscribed on clay tokens, the seemingly pictographic signs got to be written in more improved medium such as bullae and finally clay tablet that can harbor more complicated information. Also Cuneiform adapted to more progressive structures that later turns into syllabic and eventually alphabetic writing system. The cuneiform was first used by Sumerians, and then it wide spread throughout the region and was later adopted by numerous ethnic groups headed by Babylonians and Assyrians. The adaptation process created Akkadian cuneiform which is basically distinct from its predecessor. From 10th to 7th century B. C. , after Assyrians survived from the invasion of the Sea People which is barely recorded nor preserved in oral transmission, they rapidly expanded their realm and established the empire. According to Albenda, Assyrians were brutal warriors armed with advanced chariot which made them formidable in the Middle East (46). â€Å"The need to maintain the Assyrian army resulted in a series of forays against neighboring communities, and these ventures were countered by attacks, which, if we are correct in our belief, are illustrated on the Assyrian bas-reliefs originally located above the scene of the besieged city. (Albenda, 46) As a result of continual series of conquest, the Assyrians were known to be infamous rulers, which partly was what they aimed to be. The empire prospered along with the expansion. The royal palace in Nimroud, built by a renowned Assyrian emperor, Ashur-nasir-pal II, still reflects the prosperity of the empire. The royal reliefs were excavated from the palace in N imroud, also known as its biblical name Calah. These were made around 860B. C. , at the pinnacle. However, the prosperity did not last forever, and the palace was buried under sand after the fall of the empire. With the fall of Assyria in 612 B. C. , the palace fell into ruins and became completely covered with earth and overgrown. It lay forgotten for 2,500 years, until it was rediscovered by a young British adventurer, Austen Henry Layard, in 1846† (Russell, 655). Layard excavated the ruins of Babylon, ancient cities of southern Mesopotamia, and lastly the imperial capital of Ashurbanipal in the north of Bagdad. He was credited not only for his ability as a diplomat but also for his understanding on the Middle Eastern culture. The Assyrian relief excavated in royal palace of Ashur-nasir-pal II features salient characteristics of both the writing system and the society it was inscribed. First of all, the texts in the reliefs in Nimroud were written in Akkadian language, using logo-syllabic cuneiform signs. Akkadian language is the earliest Semitic language currently known, and it shares significant features with modern day Semitic languages, such as Arabic or Hebrew. Huehnergard and Woods note that the Akkadian grammar system is closely related to that of classic Arabic. 83) Akkadian language was once utilized as a lingua-franca in the Middle East until the 8th century B. C. , when it was marginalized by Aramaic language during the Neo-Assyrian era. However, it still remained as a literary language, widely written for official usage including the reliefs in Assyrian palace. Akkadian was written in cuneiform which had been first invented by Sumerians. Sumerians resided in Mesopotamia, establishing the oldest civilization ever known before Assyrians and Babylonians built their own. Christopher Johnston mentions in his writing that cuneiform tablets of Assyria and Babylonia not only presented a Semitic language, but also idioms considerably differing from Semitic language. The most peculiar feature of the idioms was that these were written for the most part in ideograms, combined with certain phonetic elements. (317) It implies that Akkadian language adopted ideographic features of Sumerian writing system along with Sumerian civilization, making Akkadian cuneiform share both logographic and syllabic characteristics. Johnston states that â€Å"Old tongue [like Sumerian vocabulary in Akkadian language] was preserved as a ritual [and court] language, holding the same place that Latin holds today in the Roman Catholic church† (318). Since Akkadian cuneiform is polyvalent which means it is used in multiple different languages, transliteration of Akkadian cuneiform requires a distinction between different systems. It was composed of Sumerian logograms, syllabograms and determinatives which mark semantic categories in logographic writing. In transliteration format of cuneiform, logograms are written in capital letters, syllables in lower case, and determinatives in superscripts. Moreover, single cuneiform sign can represent multiple sounds and meanings in different languages. Thus even a sign with single transliteration can be presented in various ways when it is normalized. The second salient feature of the relief is its purpose and the usage of it. The Royal relief was inscribed on the wall of the palace so that anybody who visits the palace could see it. One of the characteristics of the relief that shows the usage of it is Standard Inscription: the texts were the same or very similar on each relief. The Standard Inscription begins by giving various names and titles of the king, tracing Ashur-nasir-pal II’s ancestry and summarizes his military conquests. It also briefly recounts the boundaries of his empire and the palace of Nimroud itself. (Russell, 670) The Standard Inscription most evidently harbors the purpose of the text written on the wall relief of the royal palace: to depict the royal ideology. The royal ideology consists of several goals that the reliefs were meant to propagate: the prosperity of the empire and the divinity of the royal blood as descendants of gods. The quote below from one of the reliefs well conveys the ideology. â€Å"And my decorated house like a Syrian palace for my glory in the midst of Kalkhu(Calah or Nimroud) I built†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ extent of earth higher than the former palaces of my fathers from the bed of the Tigres I caused to rise†¦.. the strong foundations against the waters, the stone embankments I strengthened like the mass of a mountain I filled†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ and igures carved in the likenesses of the great gods around I made and they inspired reverence. †(Davis, 18) In some of the reliefs, the emperor is depicted as a hybrid of human and animal, implicating the supernatural power of the ruler. The most representative piece among the depictions is the relief of human and eagle hybrid environed by a divine tree. Along with the dep ictions of supernatural creatures, the Standard Inscription had shown greatness and dignity of the empire to the people visiting the palace in Nimroud. A theme of image that is recurring throughout the clay slabs is display of violence, with its victim varies from enemies to wild beasts. Lion and ox hunting is repetitively presented on the reliefs, showing that Assyrian society valued masculinity and power over harmony and peace. Or sometimes, as mentioned above, lions and oxen are sometimes mixed with human appearance, which figuratively symbolizes the power of the ruler. Other reliefs describe fierce battles in which Assyrian warriors are defeating its enemies (Reade, 87). The images subsequent to the images of battle are mostly depicting the Assyrian army capturing slaves, presenting the penalties that the subjects would face after transgression. The Standard Inscription and the images described in reliefs drive us into the fact that the artifacts were used as a medium propaganda. The continuously repeated text implies that it was not written to informative; informative writing in general is written to harbor more information in a limited space, and therefore repetition of words is unlikely in informative writing. On the contrary, expressions in propaganda are likely to be repetitive, reminding people the message that they want to convey, just like advertising language. The texts and images that present the authority and power of the empire are presumably very effective propaganda for Assyria to threaten and subjugate its neighbors. â€Å"The unlettered person saw the strong figures sacrificing, hunting, fighting and torturing prisoners, and the educated person read the boastful record and both were in this way reminded that the king and his gods were to be feared†(Davies, 20). Non-elites were note likely to view these reliefs in that they would not have often, if ever, permitted into the palace, but even if they were, they were frightened by the image of atrocities. Since Assyrian Empire was a dynasty of conquest that comprises numerous ethnic groups from Egyptians to Elamites, such propaganda of threatening its subjects was necessary to keep the empire from insurgences. According to the evidence previously mentioned, it is unlikely that the reliefs were meant to harbor aesthetic value. In other words, the reliefs were not inscribed on the wall of the palace for artistic purpose. For example, in many of the inscriptions, misspelled words are found, sometimes even from the very first word of a Standard Inscription. It is seemingly very unlikely to happen in royal art pieces. This implies that the texts were not meant to be read thoroughly, word by word. Furthermore, the texts are inscribed in the middle the slabs, intersecting the image. This makes it hard to identify the text. The misspelled words, poor legibility and recurring texts of Standard Inscription indicate that the texts on the reliefs are not written as a literary work with little aesthetic consideration. Not only the text but also the themes of images are repetitive, lacking creativity. Rather than pursuing a certain aesthetic value, the reliefs in general are focused on their function as propaganda, maximizing the function in various methods. Assyrian royal relief excavated from the palace built by Ashur-nasir-pal II shows features of the writing system and culture of the age. The akkadian cuneiform which derived from the Sumerian cuneiform with syllabic featured added was used to inscribe the text. The texts and the images in the reliefs represents the power of Assyrian empire as propaganda, over their function of presenting information or artistic values. BIBLIOGRAPHY John Huehnergard and Christopher Woods, â€Å"Akkadian and Eblaite†, The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum, Ed. Roger D. Woodard, Cambridge University Press, 2008. 83 Russell, John Malcom, The Program of the Palace of Assurnasirpal II at Nimrud: Issues in the Research and Presentation of Assyrian Art. American Journal of Archeology, 1998. 655–715 Christopher Johnston, The Sumero-Akkadian Question, 1893. 317-322 Pauline Albenda, A Syro-Palestinian City on a Ninth Century B. C. Assyrian Relief, 1972. 46 J. E. Reade, The Neo-Assyrian Court and Army: Evidence from the Sculptures, 1972. 87-112