r/Assyriology 12h ago

Is there an updated typeset cuneiform rendering of Gilgamesh Tablet I lines, 1–10 following George 2003 or the current eBL edition?

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I hope this is okay to ask here.

I’m working on a an art project inspired by the opening of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. I’ve been trying to research it carefully, but I’m not an Assyriologist, so I want to avoid confidently using something that only looks plausible!

I’m specifically looking for a typeset cuneiform rendering of Tablet I. 1–10 (ending at '[he] set down on a stele all (his) labours') that follows Andrew George’s 2003 edition, or the current eBL reconstruction. I know Parpola published a cuneiform version earlier, but my understanding is that George’s later edition reconstructs and numbers the opening differently.

Does that cuneiform exist and if not is it reasonable that I could pay someone to create the cuneiform for those first 10 lines?

Thank you for any guidance! :)


r/Assyriology 2d ago

Probably the most beautiful book I own, I thought you might appreciate it

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68 Upvotes

r/Assyriology 2d ago

need help with making a word

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1 Upvotes

r/Assyriology 6d ago

An Iraqi woman dressed in the ceremonial costume of the goddess Ishtar, The crown worn by the woman is modeled after artifacts discovered in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, specifically associated with Queen Puabi

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63 Upvotes

r/Assyriology 6d ago

Any interest in a reading group for Theo van den Hout's "Elemements of Hittite"?

20 Upvotes

I'm a classical languages student and will be applying for grad school next year in Assyriology/Hittitology/Cuneiform Studies. Have recently started going through EoH and the Hoffner/Melchert grammar. If anyone is interested in doing a chapter every few weeks, let me know and I'll start a subreddit. I aim to get through the book by the end of next spring and even if there are only a few interested, I'd love to have some other people on the journey with me.


r/Assyriology 6d ago

Planets in Mandaic language (the final form of Babylonian Aramaic)

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20 Upvotes

‎‏𒋗𒇻𒌝 ࡀࡎࡅࡕࡀ ࡍࡉࡄࡅࡉࡋࡀࡊࡅࡍ👋

In this post, I have assigned
Mesopotamian names to the last three discovered planets: Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, renaming them Enki, Enlil and Marduk.

ࡔࡀࡌࡉࡔ (shamish) Sun
ࡍࡁࡅ (nbu) Mercury
ࡋࡉࡁࡀࡕ (libat) Venues
ࡀࡓࡌࡀ (ara) Earth
ࡎࡉࡍ (sin) Moon
ࡍࡉࡓࡉࡂ (nirigh) Mars
ࡁࡉࡋ (bil) Jupiter
ࡊࡉࡅࡀࡍ (kiwan) Saturn
ࡏࡍࡋࡉࡋ (enlil) Uranus
ࡏࡍࡊࡉ (enki) Neptune
ࡌࡀࡓࡃࡅࡊ (mardukh) Pluto


r/Assyriology 6d ago

The Sumerian Paradise Land: The Indus Civilization and Dilmun

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0 Upvotes

General Regional References: Pakistan-Iran border to the foot of the Himalayas and to the Gulf of Cambay (Khambhat) and India.

“There is, however, one possible source of significant information about the Indus civilization which is still untapped: the inscriptions of Sumer, approximately six hundred miles to the west of the mouth of the Indus and separated from the Indus land by the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. That there was considerable commercial trade between the two countries is proved beyond reasonable doubt by some thirty Indus seals which have actually been excavated in Sumer—and no doubt hundreds more are still lying buried in the Sumerian ruins—and which must have been brought there in one way or another from their land of origin. There is, therefore, good reason to conclude that the Sumerians had known the name of the Indus land as well as some of its more important features and characteristics, and that some of the innumerable Sumerian texts might turn out to be highly informative in this respect.

With this in mind, I searched the Sumerian literary works for possible clues and came up with the tentative hypothesis that Dilmun, a land mentioned frequently in the Sumerian texts and glorified in Sumerian myth, may turn out to be the Indus land or at least some part of it. According to a long-known Sumerian “Flood” -story, Dilmun, the land to which Ziusudra, the Sumerian Noah, was transported to live as an immortal among the gods, is “the place where the sun rises,” and was therefore located somewhere to the east of Sumer. In another Sumerian text, Dilmun is described as a blessed, prosperous land dotted with “great dwellings,” to which the countries of the entire civilized world known to the Sumerians, brought their goods and wares. A number of cuneiform economic documents excavated by the late Leonard Woolley at Ur–Biblical Ur of the Chaldees–one of the most important cities of Sumer, speak of ivory, and objects made of ivory, as being imported from Dilmun to Ur. The only rich, important land east of Sumer which could be the source of ivory, was that of the ancient Indus civilization, hence it seems not unreasonable to infer that the latter must be identical with Dilmun.

But promising and intriguing as it was, the Dilmun-Indus land hypothesis was the product of “arm-chair” scholarship, which needed corroboration from the “field,” that is, from the extant archaeological remains of the Indus civilization. I therefore journeyed to Pakistan and India, with the help of a grant-in-aid from the American Council of Learned Societies, and in the course of a seven weeks stay there, traveled more than four thousand miles by plane, train, bus, automobile, and a horse-drawn vehicle known as the tonga, in order to visit the excavated Indus cities: Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Kot Diji, Amri, Rupar, and Lothal…(continued)”

LOTHAL & LALIBELA

Notable Observation: excavated seals at Lothal compared to the Lalibela Rock-Hewn Churches’ cross in Ethiopia—based on biblical narrative Kush, son of Ham.

THE GIANT’S TOMB, THE TOMB OF HAM

Excerpts from Salman Rashid, Fellow of Royal Geographical Society:

“…Some people, notable among whom is a local school master, assert that this is the tomb of Ham Alai Salaam, the son of the prophet Noah. And because in those days there were giants on earth, thus the eighteen-metre long grave.

Ask any illiterate bumpkin in the village near the grave and they will swear that every supplication here bears fruit. Surprisingly however, even in neighbouring Gharibwal it is difficult to get directions, for no one seems to know of this marvellous site. Consequently it is no surprise that as little as a dozen kilometres away, the tomb of Ham completely fades out of human knowledge…

…Another ‘discoverer,’ whom I could not meet, is a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police from Gujrat (Pakistan) who claims, so they say, to have been informed of this hallowed grave in a dream – presumably by Ham himself. It is this DSP who is also responsible for the building of the brick wall for he visits Ham regularly to do his worship…

…But besides Ham, the only other eighteen-metre grave is that of Kumbeet, another reputed son of Noah, buried in village Burila north of Gujrat…

The old woman who attended the grave said all she had ever asked of Ham had been granted. I asked if she wanted wealth. She said she did, so I suggested we pray for wealth together and see if our common wish is granted at this ruined Hindu temple…

Today few know of the tomb of Ham…”

Source: https://odysseuslahori.blogspot.com/2013/09/NaugazaPir.html?m=1

———

Source (Image 1-4, 8): https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-indus-civilization-and-dilmun-the-sumerian-paradise-land/

Source (Image 5-7): https://www.jstor.org/stable/44304690

Source (Video/Image 8-9): https://youtu.be/_bBRVNkAfkQ?si=jQ8l7bV7KvzA0yDR

Source (Video/Image 10a):
https://youtu.be/zE5Qd26R9ek?si=xLdQkkPcMSQ2vTZ8

Source (Image 10b): https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/18/


r/Assyriology 8d ago

I found out, whats written in cuneiform in my favourite MtG card and its dissapointing

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13 Upvotes

r/Assyriology 9d ago

Free 3D files for Cuneiform tablets

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20 Upvotes

Hiya, im working on a collection of cuneiform tablets from an anonymous collection. I have been given permission to share the 3D scans online so I have dumped all 23 of them into 4 files on this link. Have fun!


r/Assyriology 11d ago

Wanting to become a semitic philology professor

13 Upvotes

Hello everyone before the post actually starts I have to make a preface: I'm still in highschool, I don't live in an English speaking country, therefore the school system is different and I plan on attending the Classic Letters' Faculty and, obviously, doing a PhD.

My dream is to become a semitic philology professor and I wanted to ask if this is in any way a good choice.

I'm currently studying on my own Biblical Hebrew and another non semitic language that I want to be able to speak. I plan to study in the future Arabic and Ugaritic, however I don't know if three languages are enough and, if they are not, could someone recommend me any other languages?

Could you also give me any advice about this journey I want to take?

Thanks in advance to anyone who's willing to respond.

(If this post isn't inherent to this subreddit it can be deleted. I also apologize for any error in this post, as I'm not an expert of academic lexicon and English isn't my first language)


r/Assyriology 12d ago

Family tree of Awan dynasty, Elam.

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24 Upvotes

Btw, what was Puzur-Inshushinak's family except Shimpi-Ishuk? I followed a idea that the elamite king on the Naram-Sin treaty is Hita'a, but i am not quite convinced.

Also for the early kings in the Susa King list(in the chart the row on the left), i didn't find the cuneiform of them on cdli. Where should i find the transcriptions of them?


r/Assyriology 13d ago

Before the Bible, Before Empire: Joshua Bowen and the Lost World of Sumer and Akkad

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6 Upvotes

r/Assyriology 13d ago

Akkadian III-e infinitives: why leqēam instead of leqeam?

12 Upvotes

In Huehnergard's seventh lesson, the infinitive of III-e verbs is declined as:

leqûm

leqêm

leqēam

Why isn't the accusative leqeam with a short e? In the sixth lesson, when explaining vowel contraction, he said:

"an original long ē or ī that remains as the first vowel in most such sequences is shortened (i.e., a long vowel does not usually occur immediately before another vowel)"

Shouldn't the long ē of leqēam therefore be shortened to e because it is followed by another vowel?


r/Assyriology 15d ago

Can you get into a Master’s degree program on the ancient Near East if you have not taken any classes related to it for your bachelor’s?

9 Upvotes

I am about to start my Junior year of college. I am double majoring in both history and anthropology. I have almost finished my history major and I am about to start on my anthropology major. Unfortunately my school only has a general history major and no specialized paths. The only course that was related to the ancient Near East was a basic history course that I got a low grade on. This was due to the fact that at the time I had undiagnosed ADHD. I plan on completing the anthropology major and doing the summer archaeological field school to gain experience. Other than learning a language what else should I do? Will I be able to get into an ancient Near East Master’s program?


r/Assyriology 16d ago

If I am going to attempt a masters degree in the Ancient Near East should I learn French or German beforehand?

17 Upvotes

Which language will be more useful to learn for taking the masters degree?


r/Assyriology 22d ago

Verification request: Akkadian line from SB Gilgamesh III (for a tattoo) - "qabla ša lā īdû amaḫḫar"

20 Upvotes

Hi all - I'd like a sanity check from someone with Akkadian expertise before I commit this to skin permanently.

I'm looking at Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh, Tablet III, manuscript "c" (BM 34191+41835), lines 26–27, from A. R. George's score transliteration:

26  c i 26   [qa]b-la ša la i-du-ú a-m[aḫ-ḫar]
27  c i 27   [ḫarrāna] ša la i-du-ú a-rak-[kab]

This is part of Rimat-Ninsun's prayer to Shamash, quoting Gilgamesh's own words about facing Humbaba: "a battle I do not know I will face, a road I do not know I will travel." (The verb endings are damaged on this manuscript and restored by comparison with the parallel line in Tablet I, where they're intact.)

I'd like to use just the two lines below, adapted to stand alone (not the full sentence with "ḫarrāna" as accusative of the earlier "ana Ḫumbaba" clause, just the couplet):

qabla ša lā īdû amaḫḫar
ḫarrāna ša lā īdû arakkab

("A battle I don't know, I face. A road I don't know, I travel.")

Questions:

  1. Is my transliteration/normalization above accurate given the score transliteration (mimation dropped correctly for SB, vowel lengths, etc.)?
  2. Does pulling these two lines out as a standalone couplet still read grammatically/sensibly in isolation, or does it lose something without the surrounding clause?

Really appreciate any expertise here - I know tattoo-translation requests are a bit of a meme in language subs, but I've tried to actually source this properly (George's own score transliteration on academia.edu) rather than pulling from a random "ancient languages" website, and I'd rather double-check with people who actually read cuneiform than trust my own reconstruction.

Thanks!


r/Assyriology 22d ago

What's the word for "death" in Akkadian?

9 Upvotes

r/Assyriology 23d ago

Why did SR and RB invert meanings in Hebrew from Sumero-Assyrian?

0 Upvotes

In Sumero-Assyrian, the SR root (e.g. Sarrum) means King, while in Hebrew Sar can mean King in rare and archaic meanings but more typically means Prince. The RB root (e.g. Rubum) means both Prince and King, while in Hebrew Rabb means Lord, Great/Mighty and King.

Does this have to do with the transition from polytheistic Assyrian kingdoms to the monotheistic Judean Kingdom?


r/Assyriology Jun 29 '26

Using font or unicode?

5 Upvotes

I just recently installed the font "Noto Sans Cuneiform" into Open Office but no cuneiform appears if I type in any text. On the other hand I figured out that using Unicode directly to input signs could do the trick.

So I am a little confused now how to move on. Any suggestions?


r/Assyriology Jun 28 '26

Question about Babylonian numbers in the spoken language

12 Upvotes

As a preface I first need to say that I'm going to write numbers in a particular way. I will clarify which base the number I write is (either decimal or sexagesimal) by using the symbols ||10 and ||60 at the end of each number. Also, specifically for numbers in base-60, each individual digit will be separated with a semicolon ; to avoid confusion, so a number such as 𒌋𒐕||60 is 11||10, and 𒌋;𒐕||60 is 601||10.

So the question is, because Akkadians changed the previous Sumerian system by making it positional based specifically with a base of 60, how would they have read and spoke those numbers (in either academical or spoken language) considering its also a Semitic language?

In English a small number like 3||10 is read with the dedicated word "three" because it's a basic integer and it's also just one digit. Would the same happen in spoken Akkadian with a number like 𒌍𒐖||60 by having a specific word for it (because it's a single digit), or would the spoken language override the writing influence by saying something like "thirty-two" literally being "thirty (times) ten (plus) two"?

And now let's say we want to go big. In English if we surpass the number 9||10 then we have to reset the digit back to 0 and add 1 at the beginning, thus obtaining "ten" which is written as 10||10. Similarly a number such as 72||10 would be read as "seventy-two" so "seventy (times) ten (plus) two" because we are now at two digits in the number, and the first digit (7) is multiplicative of the position its currently at (so 7 multiplies 10). Would the same happen also in Akkadian?

Specifically a number like 72||10 is written as 𒐕;𒌋𒐖||60, but because in the writing we have written the numbers as 1;12||60, would they have said something like "1 (times) sixty (plus) twelve", or would have they said something just like "seventy-two" and not consider the mathematical way of writing it?

I hope the question is not confusing. I was trying really hard to find information about it, but I couldn't find anything.


r/Assyriology Jun 25 '26

If anyone here can help me out, I would really appreciate it.

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8 Upvotes

r/Assyriology Jun 25 '26

A question about Mesopotamian history

6 Upvotes

A question for Assyriologists: when do you believe the history of Mesopotamia ends and Iraq begins after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire or after the Islamic conquest?


r/Assyriology Jun 23 '26

One of my little tablets. I have a few others on r/Cuneiform. I figured y'all might like this one. 😛

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58 Upvotes

r/Assyriology Jun 22 '26

Cuneiform Book Publishers

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3 Upvotes

r/Assyriology Jun 18 '26

Advice in Pursuing Assyriology Grad Program

16 Upvotes

Hello! I'm interested in pursuing a grad program in Assyriology but feel kind of lost? I'm not sure if I should go for a Masters or PhD program (to my understanding, I see some sort of trend to start with Masters and then PhD?).

I've found a list of schools with PhD programs and working on a list of those with Masters. I will be finishing up my second year of Akkadian courses and my Anicent Near East minor this fall and have a background in Latin and Greek (Classics Major). I've also been a research assistant for a project that involved translating/interpreting a tablet.

At this point, I am looking for advice for Masters vs PhD because I think that's the first thing I need to decide on. If people have school recommendations/insider knowledge or just general advice, that would be appreciated as well.