Editing Mesopotamia (section)

==Language and writing==
[[File:P1050763 Louvre code Hammurabi face rwk.JPG|upright=.8|alt=Square, yellow plaque showing a lion biting in the neck of a man lying on his back|thumb|The [[Code of Hammurabi]] is a [[Babylon]]ian legal text composed <abbr>c.</abbr> 1755–1750 BC. It is the longest, best-organised, and best-preserved legal text from the [[ancient Near East]]. It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], purportedly by [[Hammurabi]], sixth king of the [[First Dynasty of Babylon]].]]
{{Main|Akkadian language|Sumerian language}}

The earliest language written in Mesopotamia was [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]], an [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] [[language isolate]]. Along with Sumerian, [[Semitic languages]] were also spoken in early Mesopotamia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/mesopotamia_gallery_03.shtml|title=Ancient History in depth: Mesopotamia|publisher=BBC History|access-date=21 July 2017|archive-date=28 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628234445/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/mesopotamia_gallery_03.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Subartu]]an,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Finkelstein |first=J. J. |year=1955 |title=Subartu and Subarian in Old Babylonian Sources |journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.2307/1359052 |jstor=1359052 |s2cid=163484083}}
</ref> a language of the Zagros possibly related to the [[Hurro-Urartian languages|Hurro-Urartuan language family]], is attested in personal names, rivers and mountains and in various crafts. [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] came to be the dominant language during the [[Akkadian Empire]] and the [[Assyria]]n empires, but Sumerian was retained for administrative, religious, literary and scientific purposes.

Different varieties of Akkadian were used until the end of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Neo-Babylonian]] period. [[Old Aramaic language|Old Aramaic]], which had already become common in Mesopotamia, then became the official provincial administration language of first the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]], and then the [[Achaemenid Empire]]: the official [[variety (linguistics)|lect]] is called [[Imperial Aramaic]]. Akkadian fell into disuse, but both it and Sumerian were still used in temples for some centuries. The last Akkadian texts date from the late 1st century AD.

Early in Mesopotamia's history, around the mid-4th millennium BC, [[cuneiform]] was invented for the Sumerian language. Cuneiform literally means "wedge-shaped", due to the triangular tip of the stylus used for impressing signs on wet clay. The standardized form of each cuneiform sign appears to have been developed from [[pictogram]]s. The earliest texts, 7 archaic tablets, come from the [[É (temple)|É]], a temple dedicated to the goddess Inanna at Uruk, from a building labeled as Temple C by its excavators.

The early [[logogram|logographic]] system of cuneiform script took many years to master. Thus, only a limited number of individuals were hired as [[scribe]]s to be trained in its use. It was not until the widespread use of a [[syllabary|syllabic]] script was adopted under Sargon's rule<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz8UDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|last=Guo|first=Rongxing|title=An Economic Inquiry into the Nonlinear Behaviors of Nations: Dynamic Developments and the Origins of Civilizations|page=23|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2017|access-date=8 July 2019|quote=It was not until the widespread use of a syllabic script was adopted under Sargon's rule that significant portions of Sumerian population became literate.|isbn=9783319487724|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414130750/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz8UDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|url-status=live}}</ref> that significant portions of the Mesopotamian population became literate. Massive archives of texts were recovered from the archaeological contexts of Old Babylonian scribal schools, through which literacy was disseminated.

Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC. The exact dating is a matter of debate.<ref name="woods">Woods C. (2006). "Bilingualism, Scribal Learning, and the Death of Sumerian". In S. L. Sanders (ed) ''Margins of Writing, Origins of Culture'': 91–120, Chicago, Illinois [http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/OIS2.pdf]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429121058/http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/OIS2.pdf|date=29 April 2013}}.</ref> Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary, and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD.

===Literature===
{{Main|Akkadian literature|Sumerian literature}}
[[File:Tablet XI or the Flood Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, currently housed in the British Museum in London.jpg|thumb|The [[Epic of Gilgamesh]], an [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] from ancient Mesopotamia, regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature.]]
[[Library|Libraries]] were extant in towns and temples during the Babylonian Empire. An old Sumerian proverb averred that "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn." Women as well as men learned to read and write,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ONkJ_Rj1SS8C&pg=PA75 |page=75 |title=Women, Crime and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society: Volume 1: The Ancient Near East |isbn=9780826416285 |last1=Tetlow |first1=Elisabeth Meier |date=28 December 2004 |publisher=A&C Black |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=22 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522152934/https://books.google.com/books?id=ONkJ_Rj1SS8C&pg=PA75 |url-status=live }}</ref> and for the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] Babylonians, this involved knowledge of the extinct Sumerian language, and a complicated and extensive syllabary.

A considerable amount of [[Akkadian literature|Babylonian literature]] was translated from Sumerian originals, and the language of religion and law long continued to be the old agglutinative language of Sumer. Vocabularies, grammars, and interlinear translations were compiled for the use of students, as well as commentaries on the older texts and explanations of obscure words and phrases. The characters of the syllabary were all arranged and named, and elaborate lists were drawn up.

Many Babylonian literary works are still studied today. One of the most famous of these was the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]], in twelve books, translated from the original Sumerian by a certain [[Sîn-lēqi-unninni]], and arranged upon an astronomical principle. Each division contains the story of a single adventure in the career of [[Gilgamesh]]. The whole story is a composite product, although it is probable that some of the stories are artificially attached to the central figure.