How2Day: Recent Cuneiform Discoveries

Cuneiform was a writing system that was in widespread use for over 3,000 years. Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
Cuneiform (Latin for "wedge shaped") is an ancient writing form that was in widespread use from 3,000 BC to AD 100, by which time it was replaced by the alphabet. It was developed by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (Greek for "between the rivers" -- indicating the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates). It is a writing system used to write many languages -- as today the Roman alphabet is used to write French, English and Spanish.

Two of the most surprising finds of cuneiform tablets in modern times were made, quite by accident, in the Utah Museum of Natural History in 1995 and in the basement of Brigham Young University in 1996. There were over 5,000 tablets. They are written in various languages, were from various times and apparently came from various places. They were apparently brought back to Utah by the archaeologist Edgar James Banks in 1914 -- when the laws regarding importation of antiquities were a lot less strict.

In 2006, in the course of archaeological research in the ancient city of Uromieh (Assyrian for "city of water") in the Kurdish region of Iraq, tablets almost 3,000 years old, written in Assyrian cuneiform, were discovered. These tablets tell of the plundering of the palace and storehouses of King Musasir in the eighth century BC by the Assyrian king, Sargon. This is the same Sargon that is the legendary hero warrior-king of Iran.

In 2007, a cuneiform tablet was found that dates to the 9th year of the reign of King Nebuchandezzar, who conquered Jerusalem in 589 BC. The tablet notes the donation of a pound and a half of gold to a temple. The interesting thing about this tablet was that it collaborates the existence of one of the characters mentioned in the Bible -- in Jeremiah 39. Nebo-Sarsekim was an official in the court of King Nebuchandezzar, and this tablet is the only mention of his existence outside of the Bible.

In 2010, in an excavation in Hazor National Park in Israel, an archaeological team from the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology unearthed the Hazor legal tablet. This tablet contains the code of Hammurabi. This ancient code describes various civil laws and torts including personal injury laws involving slaves and masters. The site also contains cuneiform records of civil trials and is the first known mention of the phrase "a tooth for a tooth." Although it has not been accurately dated yet, the tablet is clearly older than the Bible and probably older than Moses. Another interesting tablet found at the site contains the multiplication table.

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