Comparative Writing

choi

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Geraldine Fabrikant, Hunting for the Dawn of Writing, When Prehistory Became
History. New York Times, Oct. 20, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/arts/design/20writing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=sumerian%20cuneiform&st=cse
(tablets of proto-cuneiform dated 3,200 BC)

Quote:

"Writing came to China as early as around 1200 B.C. and to the Maya in
Mesoamerica long before A.D. 500  

"But in the 1950s G黱ther Dryer, a German archaeologist, found writing on
bone and ivory tags in an elaborate, probably royal burial site at Abydos in
southern Egypt. The depth at which they were buried and subsequent carbon
tests proved the pieces to be as old as Sumerian works.

"Today almost all languages except Chinese and Japanese are alphabetic. The lack of an alphabet makes Chinese particularly difficult for foreigners. But if Chinese bears little similarity to languages elsewhere in the world, its origins ?like the origins of hieroglyphics ?have to do with the gods.


Note:
(a) Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorderasiatisches_Museum_Berlin
(German for Near East Museum)

(b)
(i) James Henry Breasted
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Henry_Breasted
(1865-1935; American archaeologist)

(ii) James Henry Breasted, Ancient Times: A History of the Early World. An
introduction to the study of ancient History and the career of early man.
Ginn and Company, 1916.

(c) The report said, "Among the institute抯 prized holdings is a 40-ton winged bull from Khorsabad."

(i) IRAQ - Khorsabad Bull Sculpture. Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.
http://oi.uchicago.edu/gallery/pa_iraq_bull/

(ii) Colossal winged bull from the Palace of Sargon II (Khorsabad, Northern Iraq, Neo-Assyrian, about 710-705 BC). British Museum.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/c/colossal_winged_bull.aspx
("One of the heaviest objects in the Museum
This is one of a pair of colossal human-headed winged bulls, magical figures which once guarded an entrance to the citadel of the Assyrian king Sargon II (721-705 BC)")

(iii) Lamassu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamassu
(In art, lamassu were depicted as hybrids, winged bulls or lions with the head of a human male. There are still surviving figures of lamassu in bas-relief and some statues in museums, most notably in the British Museum, Mus閑 du Louvre, National Museum of Iraq, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Oriental Institute, Chicago. They are generally attributed to the ancient Assyrians. The lamassu is at the opening of the city, so that everyone who enters sees it.)

(iv) Dur-Sharrukin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dur-Sharrukin
(present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria; "the gates [to the palace] were flanked with winged-bull [Lamassu] statues weighing up to 40 tons. Sargon supposedly lost at least one of these winged bulls in the river")

Note the plural form of "gates." That explains why there are moer than a pair of Lamassu statutes.

(d) The report mispelled. Rather than "G黱ther Dryer," The German
archaeologist was G黱ter Dreyer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Dreyer
(1943-  )

(e) Gilgamesh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh
(the fifth king of Uruk; ruling 126 years, according to the Sumerian king
list; He was said to be contemporary with some of the earliest
archaeologically-known figures, placing his reign ca. 2500 BC)

(f) Canaanites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanites
(Greeks called the Canaanites the Phoenicians)


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