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> That single passing reference to him as King of Assyria, was everything that was known of him for 2500 years, until the ruins of Dur-Sharrukin, his capital (d

> That single passing reference to him as King of Assyria, was everything that was known of him for 2500 years, until the ruins of Dur-Sharrukin, his capital (destroyed during the mentioned wars) were excavated in the 19th century. I only have a layman's knowledge of this part of history, but this strikes me as unlikely. Surely something was known of him for some time in other sources, probably hundreds of years at least, before those source were also lost? The loss of knowledge is also second-order: we have lost knowledge of what was known to our predecessors.

retrac 4y ago
Sure, I might have overstated the case a bit. There was scattered used of Akkadian as a written language into Alexander the Great's time; there was possibly some knowledge of that time in Babylon around then. Still, the end of Mesopotamian records is abrupt. There's a written record from prehistory until the wars of around 700 BC, where the use of writing drops off but doesn't completely stop. But written records in Akkadian, the education of priests and scribes in Akkadian and Sumerian (itself dead for 2000 years by then as a purely liturgical language) basically stops after the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. I'd note that writing in antiquity was deeply tied to both administration and to religion. The Persians were Zoroastrians; they do not seem to have oppressed, but state support went to Zoroastrianism and not the traditional Mesopotamian cults (and their scribes and schools). They imposed their own administrative structure on the conquered territories. Persian became the written standard, pretty much overnight. Akkadian seems to have ceased to be spoken within a couple generations among the ruling class, and within a few hundred more years it was not only dead but basically forgotten.
- wl 4y ago
  > Still, the end of Mesopotamian records is abrupt. There's a written record from prehistory until the wars of around 700 BC, where the use of writing drops off but doesn't completely stop. But written records in Akkadian, the education of priests and scribes in Akkadian and Sumerian (itself dead for 2000 years by then as a purely liturgical language) basically stops after the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. This probably isn't so much a move away from the use of writing, but a shift away from Akkadian cuneiform on clay tablets to Aramaic on vellum. Clay tablets, even unfired, survive a long time. Vellum doesn't in that climate.
  - oddly 4y ago
    I found these two episodes of the “Fall of civilizations” podcast to be very informative about the Sumerians and Assyrians. It’s episode 8[1] and 13[2], definitely worth a listen in my opinion. [1]: https://youtu.be/cq1g8czIBJY https://youtu.be/cq1g8czIBJY [2]: https://youtu.be/Qr4FiT0ks7I https://youtu.be/Qr4FiT0ks7I

retrac 4y ago

Sure, I might have overstated the case a bit. There was scattered used of Akkadian as a written language into Alexander the Great's time; there was possibly some knowledge of that time in Babylon around then. Still, the end of Mesopotamian records is abrupt. There's a written record from prehistory until the wars of around 700 BC, where the use of writing drops off but doesn't completely stop. But written records in Akkadian, the education of priests and scribes in Akkadian and Sumerian (itself dead for 2000 years by then as a purely liturgical language) basically stops after the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. I'd note that writing in antiquity was deeply tied to both administration and to religion. The Persians were Zoroastrians; they do not seem to have oppressed, but state support went to Zoroastrianism and not the traditional Mesopotamian cults (and their scribes and schools). They imposed their own administrative structure on the conquered territories. Persian became the written standard, pretty much overnight. Akkadian seems to have ceased to be spoken within a couple generations among the ruling class, and within a few hundred more years it was not only dead but basically forgotten.

wl 4y ago
> Still, the end of Mesopotamian records is abrupt. There's a written record from prehistory until the wars of around 700 BC, where the use of writing drops off but doesn't completely stop. But written records in Akkadian, the education of priests and scribes in Akkadian and Sumerian (itself dead for 2000 years by then as a purely liturgical language) basically stops after the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. This probably isn't so much a move away from the use of writing, but a shift away from Akkadian cuneiform on clay tablets to Aramaic on vellum. Clay tablets, even unfired, survive a long time. Vellum doesn't in that climate.
- oddly 4y ago
  I found these two episodes of the “Fall of civilizations” podcast to be very informative about the Sumerians and Assyrians. It’s episode 8[1] and 13[2], definitely worth a listen in my opinion. [1]: https://youtu.be/cq1g8czIBJY https://youtu.be/cq1g8czIBJY [2]: https://youtu.be/Qr4FiT0ks7I https://youtu.be/Qr4FiT0ks7I