Deciphering Ancient Cuneiform&

The work of Rev. Edward Hincks

Foxrock Local History Society

Deciphering the Past• The enlightenment (~1680 to 1840) changed the way

people viewed the world - the key to unlocking the past lay in direct observation and study.

• Large numbers of small clay tablets with unknown scripts were circulating in Europe & puzzled scholars

• Key questions at the time– When and where was writing invented– Could these ancient texts support the old testament

• Linguists compared Sanskrit with Persian, Greek, Latin and German and found they shared common roots but many scripts remained un-deciphered

• This was the beginnings of classical philology – the comparison and analysis of written languages

Linear A

Linear B

Hieroglyphics

Excavating the middle east• Huguenot/British explorer Austen Layard excavated Assyrian city of Nimrud

(Biblical Caleh, modern Kurdish Iraq) during 1845- 1851 to great popular interest• Large numbers of inscribed monuments and clay tablets discovered covered in

cuneiform script – but what did they say?

Near Eastern Scripts Linear B (Crete/Greece)Michael Ventris (1952)

Hieroglyphics (Egypt)Champollion (1822)

Cuneiform (Babylon, Assyria, Elam, Hittites)Edward Hincks, Henry Rawlinson et al (1857)

Behistun Inscription

Hincks’ Early Life• Edward Hincks was born in Fermoy on 18th August 1792, the son of a

Presbyterian minister• Large family with 3 brothers & 4 sisters. Most emigrated to Canada &

Barbados• He attended TCD, graduating at 19 with a gold medal in Divinity. Stayed a

further 7 years studying languages and cataloging the papyri collection • Stayed with his Uncle Samuel Hincks in Blackrock part of this time (1807-

1819). • Preached against Bible Society & radical Church reform • In 1825 became pastor in Killyleagh on Strangford Lough• Married Merchants daughter Jane Boyd, 4 daughters

Hincks’ Life• In 1835 he assisted in the unrolling of the mummy Takabuti in Belfast and

interpreted the hieroglyphics on her coffin using Champollion’s primer• Hincks increasingly dedicated his time to language studies• Often when preaching at church on a Sunday he would disappear from the pulpit

in the middle of a sermon to write down a new insight • By 1850 Hincks knew that cuneiform could be translated• Financial problems were constant and he continually wrote pleading letters, even

asking the Prime Minister Robert Peel to award him a pension to support a curate so he could dedicate himself to study

• His healthy initial living of £800/yr was halved over time, although Killyleagh faired relatively well during the Great Famine

• His position on church reform had made him serious opponents and he was passed over numerous times

Hincks’ Work• Hincks Identified that the language of Babylon and Assyria

(Akkadian) written in Cuneiform script was part of the Semitic language group (close to Hebrew)

• Originally developed by the Sumerians & widely adopted• He used rigorous scientific analysis of grammar and word origins• Vast linguistic ability in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Egyptian, Arabic,

Syriac & Aramaic aided comparison of root words forms• He discovered that cuneiform characters were "polyphonic,“

a single sign could have several different readings depending on the context in which it occurred

• However, anonymous pamphlets published in London attacked the translation work, suggesting readings were being invented

A Rosetta stone for Cuneiform?• The Behistun rock Inscriptions (in modern Iran) were the breakthrough in

confirming earlier cuneiform analysis• Carved in the reign of King Darius of Persia (522 BC–486 BC). They

consisted of identical cuneiform texts in the three official languages of the empire: – Persian – Akkadian (Babylonian)– Elamite

• Papier-mâché impressions were taken by Rawlinson

The competition of 1857

Edward Hincks

Henry RawlinsonHenry Fox Talbot

Julius Oppert

• In 1857 the English Orientalist William Henry Fox Talbot suggested that an un-deciphered cuneiform text be given to different experts to translate• The aim was to settle ongoing disputes over who could translate cuneiform

Competition Results • Oppert produced an incomplete translation. Generally put

down to his lack of fluent English

• Poor translation with many mistakes – Talbot was a polymath but had only recently taken up translation

• Clearest true translation

• Almost identical to Hincks• Received major credit for success in translation• Strong ties with competition organisers (Royal Asiatic Society)

Julius Oppert

Fox Talbot

Edward Hincks

Rawlinson

Plagiarism or Coincidence? • Hincks corresponded extensively, sharing his findings. Layard introduced

Rawlinson to Hincks and helped organise the 1857 competition• Renouard shared Hincks’ papers with Rawlinson “By an accident”• Rawlinson’s subsequent translations were almost identical to Hincks’

Austen Layard

George Renouard

Henry RawlinsonEdward Hincks

What is cuneiform?• The Sumerians used a system of record-keeping that used baked clay

which is virtually indestructible• Only few people were trained to write cuneiform. Typically sons of

upper-class professionals (priests, temple officials, army officers)• A reed was used which has a ‘wedge shaped’ cross section at one end

and is circular at the other

Origin of Cuneiform letters

3000 BC 2800 BC 2300BC

• Developed around 3000 B.C. to record crops. It evolved to support complex transactions between cities and extended to cover historical records, poetry & science

• Early signs represented animals or objects. The scripts then simplified and lost its pictorial appearance

Symbol for Barley, each circle means ‘ten’

Head + Bowl = Ration

How symbols evolved

Evolution of the alphabet

God

Day

Hand

Bird

Fish

Original 3000BC 2800BC 500BC Pictograph

• Overtime signs were simplified and rotated 90 degrees

• Little connection between final forms and original pictographs

• Spread quickly along trades routes

Corroborating the Biblical Flood

Sumerian literature reached its peak in the epic of Warrior King Gilgamesh. In this tablet Utnapishtim (the Sumerian version of Noah) is warned by God to build an Ark to house and preserve living things and to send out doves to find dry land. (City of Ur, c. 2100 BC)

Evidence for the Babylonian Captivity• In 597BC the Kingdom of Judah was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon • Zedekiah, king of Judah planned a revolt, contrary to the preaching of Jeremiah (Jer. 2.7) • Nebuchadnezzar returned, laid siege to Jerusalem and in 587BC raised the temple and carried

the people away as captives (2 Kings 25:1-21; Chron. 6:15)• This was confirmed from Babylonian royal records

Ancient Babylonian Science

• Proof of the theorem (c. 1800BC) 1300 years before Pythagoras• Pythagoras was held prisoner in Babylon in 525BC and probably learnt the theorem there

C

AC = A + B 2 2 2

B

Genuine of Fake?

Adult workers received 30-40 measures of barley per month, Children received 20 (C 2350 BC, City of Girsu)

Temples issued workers with rations of barley beer, the staple drink in Mesopotamia (C 3200 BC)

• Ready market for fake cuneiform tablets even before the texts could be read• These are still held in Museums across Europe

Modern History – Destruction & Looting of Assyrian and Babylonian Heritage in Iraq

Thank You

• Chester Beatty Library holds some good examples of Cuneiform tablets

• British Museum has world leading collection

• Iraqi National Museum collection being rebuilt

• Statue of Hincks in the National Museum in Cairo for his contribution to Egyptology • Letts-Hincks family recorded in 1901 census in Foxrock

• Special thanks to Prof. Kevin Cathcart, Campion Hall, University of Oxford for permission to use material from his extensive published research on Rev. Hincks

Example of translation process

Example from the opening lines of Gilgamesh Epic

e-nu-ma e-lish la na-bu-ú shá-ma-mu enüma elish lä nabû shamämü

'When above (the) heaven was not (yet) named'

enüma is the temporal conjunction 'when‘ elish is an adverb formed with the ending -ish and associated with elû which is (as verb) 'to be high', as adjective 'high'. lä is the negation 'not', here with a verb in the so called stative form. nabû is a verb in the stative conjugation 'to be named', here in 3rd person singular 'is/was named’ shamämü is a literary form of the plural shamä'ü or shamû 'sky', 'heaven'

Excavation of the great ziggurat of Ur by Leonard Woolley between 1922 and 1934. Vast numbers of cuneiform tablets were recovered which renewed public interest.

Temple of Ishtar, Nimrud – the text describes the temple construction and dedication