Unknown language discovered in Turkey – Part 1

Lishpisibe, Bisinume, Sasime. These are some of the exotic female names found on a clay tablet recorded during the Assyrian Empire, 2,800 years ago, and have uncovered a hitherto unknown language.

"We know that women’s names because each is preceded by the Assyrian cuneiform symbol for ‘female name’" said John MacGinnis, archaeologists team member responsible for the finding and has published its findings in the latest issue of Journal of Near Eastern
Studies.

MacGinnis, professor at the University of Cambridge (England), said by telephone that the tablet excavated at the site of Ziyaret Tepe in southeastern Turkey, was discovered in 2009 and has an inscription in the Assyrian cuneiform normal in the empire .

But its contents are a surprise: the list includes 60 names related to registration Tushan Palace, residence of a governor of the Assyrian Empire in the eighth century BC, and 45 of them have a different origin to any language recorded by archaeologists.

MacGinnis indicated that the list refers to a group of native women in a remote region and transferred to the rule, possibly with force, as was common at that time.

"They could come from the Zagros Mountains in Iran," ventured the teacher, as in Assyrian documents is a reference to a language called "mejranio" which would have spoken in that area, then under Assyrian rule, but which is not know anything else.

"The names read like Lishpisibe, Bisinume, Sasime, Anamkuri, Alaqitapi, Rigahe …" said MacGinnis, who admits he has no clues to the linguistic group to which they might belong.

"I have consulted an expert and we are sure that there is an Iranian language (branch belonging to the Kurdish, spoken today in the area)," he said.On the morphology of the names is obvious, he added, that do not correspond to the Assyrian or Aramaic or
any other language spoken in the Assyrian Empire which is not shown.’

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Posted by Fouad Ashraf on Jun 19 2012. Filed under Europe, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry