{"id":150,"date":"2023-01-30T12:26:18","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T20:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wsrp\/?page_id=150"},"modified":"2025-03-14T14:34:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T21:34:54","slug":"the-el-kerak-inscription","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wsrp\/the-el-kerak-inscription\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuneiform Tablet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Background\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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In the late fourth and third millenniums B.C. a people called the Sumerians began to develop a writing system called “cuneiform” (“wedge-shaped”), written on wet clay with a sharpened stick, or stylus. At first, the Sumerians used a series of pictures (“pictograms”) to record information having to do with business and administration, but went on to develop a system of symbols that stood for ideas and later sounds (usually syllables). In the later stages of Sumerian writing, there were about 600 signs that were used on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

The language that the Sumerians used is not related to any other language we know about, and it gradually ceased to be a spoken language. The writing system, however, was adopted by people speaking a Semitic language called Akkadian and continued to be used by a number of peoples up until the 1st-century B.C.E. Both the Babylonians and Assyrians, who spoke dialects of Akkadian, used the cuneiform signs, writing not only in their own languages but sometimes in Sumerian as well. Sumerian had become the language of literature and scholarship, somewhat like Latin up until fairly recently.<\/p>\n

Cuneiform tablets have also been found in Eblaite (a Semitic language from northern Syria), Elamite (from the area of modern Iran), Hittite (an Indo-European language spoken in ancient Turkey), and other languages throughout the ancient Near East.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Photograph by West Semitic Research. Courtesy Private Collection.<\/p>\n

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\n Non Biblical Ancient Texts\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
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El-Amarna Tablets<\/a>
\nEl-Kerak Inscription<\/a>
\nMarzeah<\/a>
\nCuneiform Tablet<\/a>
\nAmman Citadel<\/a>
\nHeshbon Ostraca<\/a>
\nCylinder Seals<\/a>
\nKingdoms of Sam’al<\/a>
\nPersepolis Fortification Archive<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Article Categories\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
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Non-Biblical Ancient Texts Relating to the Biblical World<\/a>:\u00a0 Non-biblical inscriptions and documents from ancient times that improve our understanding of the world of the Bible.<\/p>\n

Biblical Manuscripts<\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0Images and commentary on ancient and medieval copies of the Bible.<\/p>\n

Dead Sea Scrolls<\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0Images and commentary on selected Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts.<\/p>\n

USC Archaeology Research Center<\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0Images of artifacts from the teaching collection of the University of Southern California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Contact Details\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Office<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Administrators, School of Religion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n

\n 213-740-0270<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n religion@dornsife.usc.edu<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":140,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-150","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCuneiform Tablet - West Semitic Research Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wsrp\/the-el-kerak-inscription\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cuneiform Tablet - West Semitic Research Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wsrp\/the-el-kerak-inscription\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"West Semitic Research Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-14T21:34:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wsrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/155\/2023\/01\/BannerImage.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"581\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wsrp\/the-el-kerak-inscription\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/wsrp\/the-el-kerak-inscription\/\",\"name\":\"Cuneiform Tablet - 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