Frances Delavan Page Jermain

“ We are nevertheless to find that writing without an alphabet is a difficult and complicated matter. So serious and difficult, that comparatively few could acquire the art, and that [28] though in great measure this was confined to special classes, as the scribes who devoted themselves to the practice, and the priesthood who were invested with the power, yet the art of writing was understood and in common use to an extent incomprehensible when the difficulties of its acquirement are considered. ”

“ Later, when pictures became the symbols of ideas, as the picture of a bee to symbolize royalty, of an eye to indicate seeing or knowing, two legs to signify walking or going, or a sparrow for cruelty or inferiority, we reach a higher stage of progression—relics or reminiscences often of the old gesture language, or objects sent as symbols of ideas.
These two first stages in the development of the art of writing are known as ideograms, where signs, symbols or figures suggest the ideas of objects without expressing their names. ”

“ Again, the clew given by the Coptic to the sounds of the old Egyptian, was also afforded by the ancient Zend, the sacred language of the Parsees.
Notwithstanding the fact that alphabetic signs were the key to each of these systems of writing, we are not to find that either the hieroglyphic or cuneiform systems were founded on the alphabet. We are to find that alphabetism and a pure alphabet are not identical. We are also to find that before the simplicities of an alphabet are reached; the art of writing in all systems is a series of bewildering complications. ”

“ The attributes of Bel-Merodach are various. He is the son of Ea, “The first born of the gods,” “The benefactor of mankind,” “The mediator between gods and men,” “The warrior god, who leads the forces of light.” Like [95] Nin-Girsu, the god of Gudea, he is the “Lord of the pure flame, who conquers and puts to flight the spirits of darkness.” Finally assuming the attributes of Samas, the Sun God, he appears as the solar deity of Babylon.
Among the cuneiform documents in the British museum, there is a group of fragments known as the Assyrian Epic of Creation. ”

“ The Iranians grew into a monotheism, at once all comprehending and simple; a philosophy profound, and yet without dogma; a system of morality noble and true, which has compelled the admiration of the wise and spiritual of all ages. ”

“ In the fury of persecution which broke over all Iran at this time, Zoroastrianism as a national faith was crushed, and the sacred literature of Persia was again scattered abroad by the devastating influences of war and fanaticism. To the religion of Zoroaster that of Mohammed succeeded, the Avesta was replaced [158] by the Koran, and the Arabian alphabet supplanted the Persian as a national script and has so remained to the present.
The ancient national life of Persia was not crushed out at once, but continued a vigorous though ineffectual resistance for centuries. ”

“ The earliest, nearest approach to a pure alphabet, was an alphabet of consonants.
The Semitic languages differ from all other idioms in structure. The original roots of Semitic words are tri-consonantal, consisting of three consonants.
Out of a language so constructed it is easy to understand the development of such an alphabet. The confusions of its use are also manifest. Thus, in the changes of signification of the Semitic root word, k-t-b, signifying “write” we have, when spoken, ka-ta-ba, “he has written,” ku-ta-ba, “it has been written,” ka-ta-bu, “writing,” and ka-tu-bu, “written.” ”

“ Mesopotamia, “The land between the rivers,” is a tract of country extending about seven hundred miles from its northernmost boundaries, near the mountains of Armenia, to the southernmost limit, the Persian Gulf. A range of hills crosses this region near the center, running east and west, from the Euphrates to the Tigris. North of these hills the country is the ancient Assyria, with its capital, Nineveh, situated on the Tigris. South of these hills to the Persian Gulf, is the ancient Babylonia, or Chaldea, where, on the Euphrates, its later capital, Babylon, was situated. ”

“ The peculiar and distinct civilization of these primitive Babylonians must have continued through long ages. Their system of writing had developed from the simple pictorial lines into the cuneiform and these signs had become phonetic, expressing sound as well as ideas. They had also developed a syllabary.
Finally, there are evidences of the gradual increase among them of another race of people. This was a Semitic people who seem at first to have established themselves in northern Babylonia in the kingdom of Accad, finally becoming supreme in the land. ”

“ While speech and mode of writing are distinct and independent, the one of the other, the influence of language structure in the evolution of graphic systems is conspicuous. Thus a sentence of English speech might be expressed by Chinese characters or Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the Tel Armana tablets, more than one language appears in the cuneiform. We have seen how the so called Hittite characters were found on occasion yielding Greek words, and the use of the Roman alphabet for French, German, Italian and other languages, are every day examples. ”

“ It is incredible that a race so advanced in polysyllabism as evidenced by the “Yih King,” or “Book of Changes,” could revert to so pure a monosyllabism as is now presented by the Chinese language. Phonetic decay is possible to many words in a language, but so general a reversion to primitive conditions is scarcely possible of a whole language.
Reference has been made in the Chinese system [49] of writing to their use of picture forms or ideographic signs, in association with the phonograms to explain the meaning or particular use of these signs. ”

“ Phœnician traders from the Persian Gulf, or nomadic tribes from the Arabian borders, Semitic families, attracted hither by the rich fertility of the Mesopotamian plains. These were Sabeans, perhaps, with a faint, far-off remembrance of the One God, ruler and creator of the universe, but now worshippers of the stars, the abodes of ministering spirits.
At this time in Sargon’s reign, long before the date accorded to Urea, The Builder, in the new empire arising in Accad, we find the early [86] beginnings of the Assyrian people. There was as yet no Assyria or Assyrians. ”

“ Akin to objects as message bearers, is the knight’s glove sent as a challenge to combat, the pipe offered by the North American Indian in token of amity, the rosemary sent in remembrance, or the rose as a token of affection. ”

“ Whatever influences the alphabet of Aram may have had in suggesting the idea of alphabetism to the originators of the Persian cuneiform, the result was original and distinct.
Of this Persian cuneiform, which has furnished the key to the decipherment of all cuneiform, the fullest vocabulary has been found in the Behistun inscriptions.
The rock on which these are engraved is situated near the western frontier of Persia on the direct route from Babylon to Ecbatana. It rises an isolated mountain from the plain to a height of seventeen hundred feet.
On one side is a sheer wall of precipitous rock. ”

“ The custom of placing the records of the founder of an edifice in chambers or cavities in the foundations of the structure is of immense antiquity. These records were inscribed generally on clay cylinders and usually ended with injunctions to any future king who might, in [100] rebuilding, come upon the secret hiding place of the cylinders that these records should be replaced in their original depository with religious rites. Failing to do this, the wrath of the gods is invoked upon his sacreligious head.
It was in this way that Nabonidus came upon some very ancient and important documents. ”

“ The arts of metallurgy were practised. Mathematics and geometry were applied to structures, and astronomy to measurements of time and planetary movements.
They were builders of cities. As we have seen, they had invented a system of writing. In certain cities they had schools for scribes, and they had libraries where the literature thus developed was collected.
When we learn that this testimony takes us back to a date older than the pyramids and to the earlier Egyptian dynasties, we may well exclaim at the astonishing facts archæology is presenting. ”

“ In Accad, which came first under Semitic influence, the old language rapidly declined. In Sumir, or southern Mesopotamia, which continued much longer under the ancient rule and influence, the old language held its own down to comparatively recent times.
The Semites, however, seem to have received from the Accadians more than they gave. The arts and sciences and civilization of this ancient people became the arts and sciences and civilization of the Semitic Assyrians and Babylonians.
They appropriated the religion and gods of these early Chaldeans. ”

“ The most wonderful discovery, however, was to come, verifying the predictions of Prof. Sayce and the judgment of Dr. Petrie, but in a way to astonish even these eminent scholars to whom all things seem possible. This was the discovery of a clay tablet inscribed in cuneiform characters similar in size, form and other peculiarities, to the letters from Lachish in the Tel-el-Amarna documents.
It is written in the Babylonian language and with the Babylonian syllabary, and what is still more astonishing, the name of Zimrida appears upon it. ”

“ Of special significance in this connection is this early contact of Abraham and his family with the land and people of Chaldea;—the lingering survivals of Accadian speech and traditions in Hebrew language and literature.
Again, when Abraham left Chaldea to found a great nation in another land, writing and literature could not have been unknown to him.
The constant use of cuneiform signs in architectural [108] structures, in business forms and in every department of social and industrial life and the ever present schools for scribes in all the great cities of Mesopotamia made this impossible. ”

“ As rightly conjectured, the other texts of the trilingual inscriptions are copies of the same decrees, addressed to other peoples of the realm, [25] speaking different languages and possessing different systems of writing. As a Persian ruler of to-day publishes an edict in Persian, Arabic and perhaps a Turanian dialect, so that it may be understood by all his subjects, so the ancient Persian kings put theirs into the languages and systems of writing peculiar to the principal races or people inhabiting the country. ”

“ Among many remarkable parallelisms in the literature of both races are the astrological chapters of the “She King,” the most ancient of the dynastic histories of the Chinese, and an astrologic chapter in an Accadian document. These have been translated by Professor Sayce, from the cuneiform, who finds constant occurrence of the same expressions in both records relating to particular forecasts, connected with certain planets, as “Soldiers arise,” “Gold is exchanged,” and many others. ”

“ Through the systematic arrangement of the vocabularies of the Semitic and Accadian people, found in the Ninevite remains, the secret of the Persian trilingual inscriptions came to light, revealing the extensive use of the cuneiform writing among the various people of western Asia. ”

“ The Bowariyeh mound at Warka is described as two hundred feet square and one hundred [79] feet high and that above thirty million bricks must have gone into its construction.
Other structures on a similar scale, the remains of which are found at Erech, Larsa, Calneh, Ur, Nippur and other cities in this region, show the magnitude of his resources and the extent of his authority. These buildings are, for the most part, temples dedicated to the tutelar divinity of each special locality, as at Larsa, where he erected a temple to the Sun God, and at Calneh to Belus. ”

“ Independently of speech, or the art of writing, other methods employed by primitive man of communicating with his kind should first be noted. Thus, the ancient gesture language, common to all races and people, whereby facial expression, attitudes or gesticulations, sorrow, hatred, love, confidence, regret, all emotions were expressed; that picture action which we find appearing in picture writing. ”

“ THE path of our alphabet seems to be taking us far afield when we turn to Chinese systems of writing and to the origin and development of cuneiform. Nevertheless, it is in this course that some of the richest developments have appeared and the greatest rewards have been obtained by scholars in this special direction of research. ”

“ THE Semitic Assyrians and the Semitic people of other portions of Mesopotamia, had adopted the cuneiform script and the Turanian syllabary as early as the days of Sargon. From this time onward, and until the days of Assyrian and Babylonian supremacy, these signs were the common medium of literary intercourse among the nations of western Asia and expressed various languages and dialects. ”

“ OF the great rulers in Mesopotamia, both Turanian and Semitic, who stand out most distinctly in the records of this remote past, are the Turanian prince, Gudea, about 4800 B. C., the great Sargon I and his son, Naram-Sin, Semitic princes, both to whom the date 3800 B. C., is accorded, and the Arabian prince, Khammuragas, or Hammurabi, the founder of the city of Babylon and contemporary with Abraham. The date now given for Sargon I, is 3800 B. C. Long before this date various families of Semitic race had evidently made their appearance in the land ”

“ Other authorities, however, speak of these “Kaldai” as a priest class, magicians and astrologers, possessing strange learning and speaking a peculiar language; as representatives also of the primitive inhabitants of the country, filling a sacred office and consulted by the king on all religious subjects.
The divinity of this city was Hurki, or Sin, the great Moon God, and here may be seen at the present day on the mounds of Mugheir the remains of an ancient temple dedicated to this deity, rising to the height of seventy feet above the plain. ”