Definition of the Arts (research carried on)

WRITING

Henry Rawlinson deciphered cuneiform by comparing it to old Persian text; it
took 12 years before he could translate the Behistun Rock (the carvings telling the
story of the great Persian king Darius I written in both Persian and cuneiform)

Historians did not know Sumer even existed until Rawlinson learned to read
cuneiform.  Babylon and Assyria were known of from the bible.

Cuneiform was written unto clay tablets using a triangular wedge shaped reed.  In
fact, cuneus (where we get the word cuneiform) is latin for wedge.

The symbols were pictograms that represented concrete objects; over time the
writing developed into ideograms where the symbols also represented ideas.
Cuneiform spread form Sumer to the north where it was developed by
Babylonians and Assyrians.  This spread was because of the beginning of trade.

LITERATURE

The history of Mesopotamia (ancient legends, religious teachings, accounts of
disasters and stories of heroes) was passed in long narrative poems or epics.

Oldest epic is the Epic of Gilgamesh.  Gilgamesh was a Sumerian king who ruled
around 2600BCE and who was believed to be 2/3 god and 1/3 man.

ART AND SCULPTURE

Important part of life and everyone owned a statue of a god.  Larger carvings were
found in temples.

Mosaics were an important way of recording history and one such was found by
Leonard Woolley in the royal tomb of Ur.  It shows a return from battle and
includes the earliest evidence of a record of the wheel in a picture of a chariot.

Ref: N/A. (-, - -). Mesoptomia: Society & Culture. Retrieved from Blackville: http://blackville.nbed.nb.ca/sites/blackville.nbed.nb.ca/files/doc/teacher/656/chapter_3_notes.pdf