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Researchers working at Ziyaret Tepe, the probable site of the ancient Assyrian city of Tušhan, believe that the 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 practised 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.
Archaeologists have discovered evidence for a previously unknown ancient language – buried in the ruins of a 2800 year old Middle Eastern palace.
The discovery is important because it may help reveal the ethnic and cultural origins of some of history’s first ‘barbarians’ – mountain tribes which had, in previous millennia, preyed on the world’s first great civilizations, the cultures of early Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq.
The unknown language was found on one Assyrian cuneiform tablet and largely consists of the names of women from a conquered territory sent abroad. The researchers have posited the language may belong to one of several languages associated with various ethnic cultures living in the region of Turkey prior to it's fall to Assyrians, and until now no written record of these languages have ever been found.
Another theory is that it was the language spoken by the Mushki -- a people who were migrating to Eastern Anatolia at around the time the tablet was made. This idea seems less plausible, however, as to appear on the list of the Assyrian administration, these people would either have infiltrated the Empire or been captured, and historians have evidence for neither.
Although historians already know that the Zagros Mountains were in a region invaded and annexed by the Assyrians, it remains, to date, the one area under Assyrian occupation for which no known language exists. That makes it tempting to link the text on the tablet to the same region. An Assyrian King, Esarhaddon, even referred to an unidentified language, Mekhranian, which supposedly hailed from the Zagros, but in practice the area was probably a patchwork of chiefdoms and more than one dialect may have been in use.
"If correct this suggests that Iran was home to previously unknown languages," MacGinnis said. "The immediate impression is that the names on this tablet were those of women who belonged to an isolated community. It may be, however, that there were others whom we still have to find out about."
Originally posted by Biliverdin
I found this interesting...
Another theory is that it was the language spoken by the Mushki -- a people who were migrating to Eastern Anatolia at around the time the tablet was made. This idea seems less plausible, however, as to appear on the list of the Assyrian administration, these people would either have infiltrated the Empire or been captured, and historians have evidence for neither.
It reminded me of the system at Ellis Island, when new immigrants used to arrive, if they weren't literate and couldn't write their own name, and the administrative clerk couldn't work out the spelling they just wrote whatever seemed to be the closest facsimile...I wonder if that is what we are seeing here too.
Originally posted by sonnny1
Very nice Theory,and I suspect,that this was probably the case.
Too bad we probably wont know the truth of it,but exciting none the less.....
Originally posted by Biliverdin
I suspect, given that they were all women, that they were going to the harem...that's another thing that seldom changes either The men folk, most likely, would like those in most regime changes, have been eliminated already leaving only females to be registered.
Originally posted by longjohnbritches
.Just wow,
17 flags about 11 posts for an unknown tablet and it's author
that someone has deduced was a list of female names 2800 years ago.
Just wow
Why not a grocery list? Either way it would be tasty
I suppose though, behaviourally, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this is the 'way' things are done in civilisations, and that this is just the earliest example of that behaviour. What it doesn't tell us though is why they were listing the names. Were they doing it for the same reason as the Nazis, for slavery purposes? Like at Ellis Island, for absorbing migrant workers?
Originally posted by sonnny1
Originally posted by longjohnbritches
.Just wow,
17 flags about 11 posts for an unknown tablet and it's author
that someone has deduced was a list of female names 2800 years ago.
Just wow
Why not a grocery list? Either way it would be tasty
Oh come now Longjohn.........
Wheres your sense of mystery ??
OP did the thread,justice.......
Originally posted by sonnny1
reply to post by longjohnbritches
All good LJB.........
I need the humor...........
Originally posted by sonnny1
And the poor male slaves........Not a mention.