Books on Egypt and Chaldxa ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE EASY LESSONS IN THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS BY L. W. KING, M.A., F.S.A. ASSISTANT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TROBNER & CO., Lr? PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD Ig0I YnPRINTED BY ADOLF HOLZHAUSEN, 19-91 KANDLOASSE, VIENNA. 182289 (The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved.)PREFACE. oo Tas little book is intended to form an easy in- troduction to the study of the cuneiform inscriptions. It contains a short description of the development of the cuneiform characters from picture-writing ; it recounts the story of the gradual decipherment of the inscriptions, beginning with the accounts of early tray- ellers to Persepolis, and it traces in detail the method by which Grotefend and Rawlinson obtained the clue to the reading of the inscriptions. A sketch is next given of the system of cuneiform writing and of the use of the characters as syllables and ideograms. . : The main facts of Assyrian grammar are enumerated in a series of short chapters, and the more important’ rules are illustrated by brief extracts from Babylonian ” and Assyrian texts; each extract is printed in cunei- ’ form type and is accompanied by a transliteration” and translation. In enumerating and discussing. the various parts of speech the words are given through- out in cuneiform as well as in transliteration in order