News

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 90747 05-22-2012 01:04 AM

Pic at link!

Archaeologists working in Turkey have found the evidence for a previously unknown ancient language which dates back more than 2,500 years, to the time of the Assyrian Empire.

The archaeologists working at Ziyaret Tepe, the probable site of the ancient Assyrian city of Tušhan, believe that this language may have been spoken by deportees originally from the Zagros Mountains, on the border of modern-day Iran and Iraq. In keeping with a policy widely practiced across the Assyrian Empire, these people may have been forcibly moved from their homeland and resettled in what is now south-east Turkey, where they would have been set to work building the new frontier city and farming its hinterland.

The evidence for the language they spoke comes from a single clay tablet, which was preserved after it was baked in a fire that destroyed the palace in Tušhan at some point around the end of the 8th century BCE. Inscribed with cuneiform characters, the tablet is essentially a list of the names of women who were attached to the palace and the local Assyrian administration. A paper in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies reports the discovery.

“Altogether around 60 names are preserved,” said Dr. John MacGinnis from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. “One or two are actually Assyrian and a few more may belong to other known languages of the period, such as Luwian or Hurrian, but the great majority belong to a previously unidentified language.”

“If the theory that the speakers of this language came from western Iran is correct, then there is the potential here to

http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/article00311.html

**entropy**

Good post.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 1804 05-22-2012 01:11 AM

This sounds pretty important and should be studied.

**Your Mom** lop guest User ID: 97314 05-22-2012 01:36 AM

My first thought was the McDonald's institute??????

But then, after a little dig, discovered that the Institute was established in 1990 through a generous benefaction from the late Dr D. M. McDonald, a well-known and successful industrialist. The benefaction enabled the University to construct purpose-built premises for the Institute which include research rooms and laboratories, together with storage space, a seminar room and a modest library.

Phew, that's a relief.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 97854 05-22-2012 01:52 AM

5*

**Nothing Is True**

:D

**Full Circle**

If it's an unknown language, how do they know it's a list of women's names?

Hiding

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 97854 05-22-2012 02:13 AM

Full Circle Wrote:

If it's an unknown language, how do they know it's a list of women's names?

I believe it's saying that it's written in Assyrian but the names written down are of an unfamiliar language or origin.

**Full Circle**

Quote:Dr. MacGinnis was handed the task of deciphering the tablet and has identified a total of 144 names.

**Your Mom** lop guest User ID: 97314 05-22-2012 02:16 AM

LoP Guest Wrote:

Full Circle Wrote:
If it's an unknown language, how do they know it's a list of women's names?

I believe it's saying that it's written in Assyrian but the names written down are of an unfamiliar language or origin.

Very astute, Grasslopper!

**Forgot my secret word**

looks like tire tracks

Mlkjekga

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 97668 05-22-2012 03:11 AM

encephaloid Wrote:

Good post.

For some other forum.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 90747 05-22-2012 03:13 AM

LoP Guest Wrote:

encephaloid Wrote:
Good post.

For some other forum.