. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. Science; Natural history; Natural history. tor** , ~*. i r~ <* - r Mr PLATE 47 Like modern letters, those of ancient times present prob- lems for any reader far removed from the persons and their affairs. Words, clear in themselves, carry subtle meanings be- tween correspondents. Unfinished sentences, quite intelligible to the recipient, baffle the modern decipherer. However, the gist of these first dynasty letters can usually be determined. The letter opens as might be expected, with the word ana, "; Then follows
. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. Science; Natural history; Natural history. tor** , ~*. i r~ <* - r Mr PLATE 47 Like modern letters, those of ancient times present prob- lems for any reader far removed from the persons and their affairs. Words, clear in themselves, carry subtle meanings be- tween correspondents. Unfinished sentences, quite intelligible to the recipient, baffle the modern decipherer. However, the gist of these first dynasty letters can usually be determined. The letter opens as might be expected, with the word ana, "; Then follows the name of the recipient, Ilu-pisha. The next line contains the one word, qibima, an imperative form of qebu, "speak," with the emphatic particle ma. Then follows the usual term umma, from amu which also means "speak" but here used idiomatically, "thus," or "as ; After this comes the name of the writer, Daganbanima,2 and the formal introduc- 2 In translating, the customary symbolism is used, m signifying "man" or "male" indicates the vertical wedge which scribes often placed as a determinative before proper names. If read at all by the Babylonians, it was probably amelu. The cl is for old Sumerian DINGIR, "god/' and indicates that the following sign is a deity name. Often m and cl might appear together, since a man's name could begin with a deity name. Is is for isu (Sumerian G-IS) indicating that the following object was of wood or fiber. 156. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Southern California Academy of Sciences. Los Angeles, Calif. : The Academy
Size: 1564px × 1598px
Photo credit: © Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
