Ancient Tablets Decoded; Shed Light on Assyrian Empire

National Geographic News ^ | December 9, 2009 | Brian Handwerk

[SunkenCiv]

Meticulous ancient notetakers have given archaeologists a glimpse of what life was like 3,000 years ago in the Assyrian Empire, which controlled much of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. Clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform, an ancient script once common in the Middle East, were unearthed in summer 2009 in an ancient palace in present-day southeastern Turkey... A team led by University of Akron archaeologist Timothy Matney has been excavating the massive mud brick palace, once inhabited by the governor of the empire's Tushhan Province, for more than a decade. The palace is located in Ziyaret Tepe, one of three fortified cities that the Assyrians built in the northern reach of their empire on the banks of the Tigris River... So far, the team has deciphered lists of names of 144 women on the tablets who were likely employed by the palace as agricultural workers or laborers at its granary. Yet while the tablets were written in the Late Assyrian language, the women's names are not Assyrian, Matney said. That means the women may have been from local indigenous populations, or part of a mass relocation of people conquered by the Assyrians in another part of the empire, Matney said... When Matney and colleagues return to Ziyaret Tepe in 2010 to look for more tablets, they'll be racing against the clock: A planned hydroelectric dam project will swamp the region as early as 2013.

[SunkenCiv]

Ancient clay tablets (such as the one pictured) inscribed with cuneiform script, a type of ancient writing once common in the Middle East, have been found in southeastern Turkey, archaeologists announced in October 2009. [Photograph courtesy University of Akron]

[SunkenCiv]

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[Paladin2]

So, what was the climate like then? Any data in the records?

[SunkenCiv]

More stuff to post (in order of preference) later (self-ping, unless someone gets ambitious):

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/73920/India/First+century+Spanish+pottery+found+in+Pattanam.html

http://enperublog.com/2009/12/07/four-ceremonial-fountains-discovered-at-machu-picchu/

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/wuis-tio120809.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uoha-aoe120709.php

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091207-top-ten-archaeology-finds-2009.html

update/additional:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8404363.stm

[SunkenCiv]

There’s an FR topic, perhaps search for Urartu or Urartians, that may help.

[Dem Guard]

Ancient tabloids review additional tarts professing affairs with Tiger.

[6SJ7]

Ancient tabloids review additional tarts professing affairs with Tiger.

Tiger. Tigris River. Coincidence?

[Utah Binger]

search for Urartu or Urartians, that may help

Also search for Joey's Myth with his Urim & Thummim.

[Skooz]

BFL

[Sacajaweau]

Employed by = slaves

[decimon]

Did they have paragraphs. ;-)

[Dem Guard]

“Tiger. Tigris River. Coincidence?”

Dirty River = Dirty Dog?

[perez24]

Unfortunately those tablets were dropped from an unusually high spot and shattered.

It was a lot cooler than now though...trust me.

CRU

[colorado tanker]

"It will be very interesting to see what the role of women in this economy was

Party girls for Tiglath's VIP party room. Assyrian for Tiger. Or not.

[SunkenCiv]

RINO! ;’) Oh, sorry...

[SunkenCiv]

It’s probably a good thing Tiglath-Pileser’s website hasn’t been preserved.

[SunkenCiv]

okay, I’ve got more time, here’s what I was babbling about:

Archaeologists say the Urartians failed to overcome harsh winter conditions
Turkish Daily News | Friday, March 3, 2006 | Dogan Daily News
Posted on 03/03/2006 8:19:01 AM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1589276/posts

also:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2036465/posts?page=13#13
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1440990/posts

[Paladin2]

Thanks.

I think the paleo-climatologists should be unfunded for a generation and the $$ be spent on Archeology, History and Ancient Languages to develop a qualitative climate history of all global areas where data exist or can be found to compare to the present day conditions in the same locales.

[Redcitizen]

As you can see from the photo, the data records were also hacked into. (pieces)

[Elsie]

 

As you can see from the photo, the data records were also hacked into. (pieces)

Sometimes ya just gotta massage the data!

 

These "Caractors" are the only tangible evidence in existence related to Smith's story.

 

 No gold plates, no brass plates, no peep stones, no Urim and Thummim... only these "Caractors," not a single one of which is in the purported languages.

---

 

Smith's translation of the Caractors. According to Martin Harris (Joseph Smith - History, 1:64), "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated,* and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters."

Speak right up now in all truthfulness. Isn't it revealing how Smith started out making a stab at creating believable "caractors" but quckly gave up and produced nothing but squiggles, ending up wih a series of nothing more than crude little scribbles? Yet Professor Anthon supposedly translated them!

---

*Harris must have had two or three pieces of paper with him—one with characters and a translation of them (on the same paper or a separate one) and one with untranslated characters—quite likely the "Caractors." Some Mormon "scholars" have gone out on a limb, sawed it off, and knocked themselves out trying to translate from these true Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic characters a segment that would correspond with a verse from 1 Nephi.

---

Modern-day experts in Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic. In 1829, any knowledge of these languages possessed by U.S. scholars would have been rudimentary at best. Expertise in them has vastly improved since then. So go ahead, do it. Get any modern expert in these languages to identify which of these "Caractors" are Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic. Better still, accept the claim of Mormon apologists that Anthon did indeed so testify and that his appraisal of the Caractors was correct. (Op. cit, pp. 73-75)

Save your money! Samples of Assyriac/Aramaic and Arabic writing:

     .
 

     .
 

      .

 

What say you? Which of Smith's "Caractors" resemble the Assyriac and Arabic ones? No need to pay experts for their analysis. A child could accurately check this out. These writing systems have remained constant for well over 3000 years.