One of the most mysterious and ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia considered.So it was called the Greeks, we also it is known as Mesopotamia.This area, which is located between two large waterways, giving life in the region.One of them is Tiger, the other - the Euphrates.There were huge cities with special laws, unique customs, religion and ideology.In this land of more than six thousand years ago, I was born system of writing known as cuneiform of Mesopotamia.
wrote Why wedges?
Our ancestors were very observant, because it allowed them to survive in difficult conditions.And they were able to adapt to the world, to take from it all that is needed.If Egypt papyrus grew in abundance and you can get the stones to knock them their characters, in Mesopotamia it was not.But there was a clay from which built the house and doing the dishes.Residents saw as the wet material imprinted traces of animals, so try to use it to take notes.But to draw complex marks on clay was uncomfortable, it was much easier to squeeze her dented sharp stick with a triangular base.Thus came the famous cuneiform of Mesopotamia, which brought us many details about the mysterious people of the region.
Clay book
So, what is cuneiform, we understand.Now let's talk a little bit about what to write on the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia."Books" were different.If clay pancake was intended to exercise the students in the letter (and in the cities of Mesopotamia were the school), it has not dried.After classes, just washed written and plate used again.But it can be dried in the sun, then the information is stored longer.Important signs burned in the fire and stored in the palace.
Students who want to learn the ancient letter, first taught the art of manufacturing clay tablets.The point is not easy, because the material had a lot of impurities, from which it should be cleaned.Next it was necessary to put a rope line to cuneiform signs went smoothly.And then the scribe learned to squeeze out "letters".
Distribution mysterious signs
Clay was cheap material available to all segments of the population.Therefore, in Mesopotamia writing was familiar not only the rich people and a privileged caste (priests), and commoners.Perhaps that is why there wrote all compose verses and poems, including the heroic character.
Almost everyone today knows what cuneiform.It was used widely in the Middle East - the Sumerians, Assyrians, Persians, Babylonians.Perhaps this ancient writing system used would be there today, but she had one big drawback.Clay book gets too heavy and bulky, so it was difficult to transport them.
Cuneiform Europe
Old World learned what cuneiform more than three hundred years ago.For the first time the mysterious signs in the form of studs introduced the world to the Italian explorer named Pietro della Valle.He wrote a book about his travels in the Middle East, and it depicted a strange inscription, which is seen on a clay tablet in Persia.Ancient cuneiform writing was very different from the alphabets that are used in Europe, so it did not even consider writing system.But over time, the Western world clay tablets began to fall more often.Therefore, they aroused the interest of the public and scientists.
huge number of archaeologists have discovered clay tablets at the site of the former capital of Persia, Persepolis legendary burned by Alexander the Great and his favorite - Athens hetaera Thais.As you know, fire clay is only becoming stronger, so the most valuable library of antiquity has reached our days.However, by that time no one could read mysterious signs imprinted skilled scribes.
Riddle disclosed
history cuneiform more than one thousand years.But those who put on clay tablets mysterious signs, long dead, but their knowledge - are lost.Scientists are looking at old books, we realized that it contains the most valuable information.But, alas, no one could read it.Attempts to decipher wedges and cloves taken at the outset of nucleation science of Assyriology.And finally, the key to the puzzle has been found!However, it happened quite recently, in the nineteenth century.
first attempts to decrypt that bore fruit, carried German linguist George Grotefend.It is often called a genius one night because he was "in the dispute" took up the impossible task and performed it.Then he returned to his craft - he worked as a teacher.But the beginning of a clue he put cryptography.
In 1872, regardless of Grotefend English engraver George Smith was able to read the plate, which said the Deluge.Flood sent the gods, but they helped a man who, like the biblical Noah, saved people.This product is then entered into a science called "The Song of Gilgamesh."
invaluable contribution to this made Henry Rawlinson, a military attache.Risking his life, he studied and copied the monumental inscriptions of the Persian kings on the Behistun rock and mountain Elvand.They contain a large number of proper names (genealogies of kings), so that helped unravel the three cuneiform writing system, its three forms.
Instead of an epilogue
So, we understand that a cuneiform, made a short trip to her homeland - in Mesopotamia.What we still remember this country, which has long been sunk into oblivion?The fact that, despite the passage of millennia, its traces are still on mother earth.And in the mind of modern man still living traditions of the people who lived between the Tigris and Euphrates.We all remember the famous city of Babylon, which is famous for its huge ramparts and ziggurats, ornate gates and sculptures.In this city, even the ruins of the famous tower, which the Bible says.Well, who does not know about Nineveh, a city where you do not want to go to a Christian is righteous?It is impossible not to mention the Assyrian soldiers who were not only skilled and brave, but also very fierce.And, of course, of Persepolis, the cradle of the Persian Empire, which was from the ashes.
