Languages in Cuneiform Writing I (Akkadian, Hittite) [ LGLOR1612 ]

Course entry requirements: none, but a knowledge of Latin is an asset.
 

The key aim of the course GLOR 1611, in combination with the course GLOR 1612, is to study Akkadian and Hittite through the cuneiform texts of the 14th and 13th centuries B.C. Extracts from the Code of Hammurabi will also be studied. Students will have the opportunity to compare the linguistic systems of Hittite (an Indo-European language) and Akkadian (a Semitic language) and will gain an understanding of the morphological and syntactic structures of the two languages. Students will also be expected to carry out some philological work individually.

Akkadian and Hittite belong to different language families but were both used in the Hittite Empire, one as the language of Diplomacy, the other as the administrative and national language. Both were used to describe the same political, cultural and religious phenomena and it was possible to have the same text written in the two languages. Both used the same cuneiform writing system. The aim of both courses (GLOR 1611 and GLOR 1612) is thus to introduce students to the cuneiform writing system and to give them the basic tools which will enable them to translate Akkadian and Hittite texts of basic and intermediate difficulty.