[lg policy] Tablet in Turkey contains unknown language

[Harold Schiffman]

Tablet in Turkey contains unknown language
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    Ancient tablet unearthed in Turkey. Credit: John MacGinnis/Cambridge
University
 Published: May 10, 2012 at 8:21 PM
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CAMBRIDGE, England, May 10 (UPI) -- Archaeologists working in Turkey say
they've found evidence of a forgotten language dating back more than 2,500
years to the time of the Assyrian Empire.

Researchers from Cambridge University in Britain, working at the probable
site of the ancient Assyrian city of Tushan, said the language may have
been spoken by deportees originally from the Zagros Mountains, on the
border of modern-day Iran and Iraq.

Under a policy widely practiced across the Assyrian Empire, those people
may have been forcibly moved from their homeland and resettled in what is
now southeast Turkey, the researchers said.

"It was an approach which helped [Assyrians] to consolidate power by
breaking the control of the ruling elite in newly-conquered areas,"
Cambridge researcher John MacGinnis said. "If people were deported to a new
location, they were entirely dependent on the Assyrian administration for
their well-being."

The evidence for the language they spoke comes from a single clay tablet
that survived the fire that destroyed a palace in Tushan, inscribed with
cuneiform characters that list the names of women who were attached to the
palace and the local Assyrian administration.

"Altogether around 60 names are preserved," MacGinnis said. "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.

"We know from existing texts that the Assyrians did conquer people from
that region [western Iran.] Now we know that there is another language,
perhaps from the same area, and maybe more evidence of its existence
waiting to be discovered."

Read more:
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/05/10/Tablet-in-Turkey-contains-unknown-language/UPI-54491336695709/#ixzz1uZmSYnCd


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