Assyriology

The field covers not just Assyria but also that nation's eventual conqueror, Babylonia and the predecessor of both civilizations, Sumer. The large number of cuneiform clay tablets preserved by these cultures provides an enormous resource for the study of the period. The region's (and the world's) first cities such as Ur are archaeologically invaluable for studying the growth of urbanization.

Scholars need a good knowledge of several Semitic languages (including major dialects, aided by such languages as Biblical Hebrew for comparative purposes), and the capacity to absorbthe complexities of writing systems with several hundred core signs. While there now exist many important grammatical studies and lexical aids, many texts remain difficult to interpret accurately. Frequently, this is because the tablets they were written on are broken, or in the case of literary texts, where there may be many copies, the language and grammar are arcane. Moreover, scholars must be able to read and understand modern English, French, and German, as important references, dictionaries, and journals are published in those languages.

Some dialects are indigenous (for example, which found in merchant texts from Anatolia, called Old Assyrian); others appear to be specific "inventions" of certain groups of literati or religious authorities (the Standard Babylonian).

Sumerian has no known cognates, and an entirely different grammatical system. Despite this difference, the adaptation of the writing system, together with many lexical items, as well as possible influence on Akkadian grammar, makes reading any Akkadian text a challenging task. The writing system was also adapted for other languages, including Hittite, Hurrian, and Ugaritic. A related cuneiform writing system also appeared for Elamite.

There are lexical series of a type which reflect a scholarly interest in comparative linguistics, including the preservation of knowledge of the Sumerian language for religious and cultural purposes. In fact, because cuneiform was used for close to 3000 years, the range of records is as naturally diverse as that found in writing today, notwithstanding lower literacy rates in antiquity.

It has also been traditionally close to Biblical studies, though this is less so today. However, the training of Assyriologists has followed a traditional historical-philological path – in fact, a PhD apprenticeship, with less attention paid to questions around the philosophy of history, comparative anthropology, or other fields, which in easier circumstances, might be easier to incorporate in both training and publications.

Few universities teach advanced Assyriology, and not that many teach, for example, introductory Akkadian, which at least provides some orientation to the language and culture of the Latin of the Ancient Near East.

The categories of literature which exist are enormous, including documents such as business and legal records, religious texts, canonical literary texts, historical inscriptions of rulers, personal letters, as well as music, mathematical and pseudo-scientific texts.