SOL Ancient History Corner

[Haatu]

Please use this thread to post anything to do with ancient history anywhere in the world (before 1000 AD).

 

I'll go first:

 

An inscription from 26 BC

Sumerian (𒅴𒂠 EME.ĜIR15 "native tongue") is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) from at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.[2] The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian (and vice versa) is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence.[2] This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium as a Sprachbund (area of linguistic convergence).[2]

Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language around 2000 BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate),[3] but Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD.[4][5] Then, it was forgotten until the 19th century, when Assyriologists began deciphering the cuneiform inscriptions and excavated tablets left by these speakers. Sumerian is a language isolate.

[Haatu]

An ancient Akkadian riddle:

 

A Lover's Riddle

 

The woman you love should be in your heart, (1)

Make of her your most promising sign.

Figure it out, ask yourselves this:

What begins with a sighing wail?

Well, it's my new-born love! (5)

http://www.etana.org/node/559

[Safferz]

Nice thread Haatu, I'll add some stuff soon.

[Alpha Blondy]

Hat,

 

maybe you can do this history in chronological order. from origins to modern day. that would be really useful, abti.

 

Saffz,

 

perhaps you can help by naming the different eras (timeline). eg..The Middle Ages,The Renaissance, The Baroque Age, The Classical Period, The Romantic Era.

 

thanks in advance.

[Safferz]

Earlier this year, archaeologists discovered 35 small pyramids, grave sites and a number of artifacts in Sudan, dating back 2000 years or so to the kingdom of Kush.

 

 

But what struck me the most while reading about it at the time was this discovery, an inscription in ancient Meroitic at one of the graves they found -- archaeologists believe "aba-la" means grandma. The further removed we are from the past, the easier it is to forget they were regular people who lived and grieved just like we do:

 

Oh Isis! Oh Osiris!

It is Aba-la.

Make her drink plentiful water;

Make her eat plentiful bread;

Make her be served a good meal.

[Safferz]

The Dead Sea Scrolls are the 972 earliest surviving texts of the Old Testament (produced between 408-318 BCE), found between 1947 and 1956 in several caves in the West Bank, along the coast of the Dead Sea. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Nabatean. I went to the exhibit a few months ago, if they pass through your city, it's definitely worth checking out.

 

 

 

[Haatu]

Apophis;986623 wrote:

Also, can anyone tell me how many years has passed since Caesar crossed the Rubicon (49 BC).

2062 years. Not very had

 

If you've always wondered how the ancient Egyptians could use that ridiculous pictorial script (hieroglyphs), well wonder no more. It turns out they used a more normal looking script called Hieratic:

 

 

Hieratic refers to a cursive writing system, used in the provenance of the pharaohs in Egypt and Nubia, that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system,[1] to which it is intimately related. It was primarily written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, allowing scribes to write quickly without resorting to the time-consuming hieroglyphs.