cuneiform

cuneiform [Lat.,=wedge-shaped], system of writing developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley, probably by the Sumerians. The characters consist of arrangements of wedgelike strokes generally impressed with a stylus on wet clay tablets, which were then dried or baked. The history of the script is strikingly parallel to that of the Egyptian hieroglyphic (see also alphabet and inscription). The normal Babylonian and Assyrian writing used a large number (300-600) of arbitrary cuneiform symbols for words and syllables; some had been originally pictographic. There was an alphabetic system, too, making it possible to spell a word out, but because of the adaptation from Sumerian, a different language, there were many ambiguities. A single symbol could be used to represent a concept, an object, a simple sound or syllable, or to indicate the category of words requiring additional definition. Cuneiform writing was used outside Mesopotamia also, notably in Elam and by the Hittites (see Anatolian languages). There are many undeciphered cuneiform inscriptions, apparently representing several different languages. Cuneiform writing declined in use after the Persian conquest of Babylonia (539 B.C.), and after a brief renaissance (3d-1st cent. B.C.) ceased to be used in Mesopotamia. A very late use of cuneiform writing was that of the Persians, who established a syllabary for Old Persian. This is the writing of the Achaemenids (mid-6th cent. B.C.-4th cent. B.C.), whose greatest monument is that of Darius I at Behistun. Key discoveries of cuneiform inscriptions have been made at Nineveh, Lagash, Uruk, Tell el Amarna, Susa, and Boğazköy. Two great names in the interpretation of cuneiforms are those of Sir Henry C. Rawlinson and G. F. Grotefend.

System of writing employed in ancient times to write a number of languages of the Middle East. The original and primary writing material for cuneiform texts was a damp clay tablet, into which the scribe would press a wedge-shaped stroke with a reed stylus. A configuration of such impressions constituted a character, or sign. Proto-cuneiform signs dating from circa 3200–3000 BC were drawn rather than impressed and were largely pictographic (see pictography), though these features were lost as the script evolved. A single cuneiform sign could be a logogram (an arbitrary representation of a word) or a syllabogram (a representation of the sound of a syllable). The first language to be written in cuneiform was Sumerian (see Sumer). Akkadian began to be written in cuneiform circa 2350 BC. Later the script was adapted to other South Asian languages. Cuneiform was slowly displaced in the first millennium BC by the rise of Aramaic, written in an alphabet script of Phoenician origin. Knowledge of the value of cuneiform signs was lost until the mid-19th century, when European scholars deciphered the script.

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Body of laws revealed by documents written in cuneiform script (see cuneiform writing). It includes the laws of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Elamites, Hurrians, Kassites, and Hittites. Unlike modern legal codes, these ancient codes do not systematically treat all the rules applicable to a given area of law; rather, they treat a variety of matters but often ignore many highly important rules simply because such rules were so grounded in custom that they went unquestioned. The most important of the ancient codes is the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi.

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The Sumerian word NIN (Akkadian pronunciation: EREŠ) is the sign for "lady". NIN.DINGIR (Akkadian entu) "divine lady", "lady of [a] god" is a priestess. Many goddesses are called NIN, such as ^DNIN.GAL "great lady", ^DÉ.NIN.GAL "lady of the great temple" or ^DEREŠ.KI.GAL, ^DNIN.TI.

The sign is written as MUNUS.TÚG 𒊩𒌆 in archaic cuneiform (as well as in the Codex Hammurabi), the syllable nin on the other hand is spelled as MUNUS.KA 𒊩𒅗 in Assyrian cuneiform. MUNUS.KU = NIN₉ 𒊩𒆪 has the reading "sister".

NIN in the Gilgamesh epic

Ninsun-(^DNIN.SÚN) as the mother of Gilgamesh in the Epic of Gilgamesh-(Standard Babylonian version), appears in 5 of the 12 Chapters (Tablets I, II, III, IV, XII). The other personage using 'NIN' is the god Ninurta-(^DNIN.URTA) who appears in Tablet I, and especially the Flood myth of Tablet XI.

Of the 51 uses of the 'nin' (cuneiform), the other major usage is for the Akkadian word eninna–("nin" as in e-nin-na, but also other variants). Eninna is the adverb "Now", but is also conjunctionally-used, or as a segue-form, (a transition form).

The two uses of 'NIN' as the word for 'sister'-(Akk. ahātu), for example is used in Tablet 8 (The Mourning of Enkidu), line 38:

"May ...

"May the brothers go into mourning over you like sisters;"

See also

• EN (cuneiform)
• Puabi

References

• Parpola, Simo, with Mikko Luuko, and Kalle Fabritius (1997). The Standard Babylonian, Epic of Gilgamesh. The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. ISBN 951-45-7760-4 (Volume 1) in the original Akkadian cuneiform and transliteration; commentary and glossary are in English.