[HN Gopher] The Race to Decipher Cuneiform in the 19th Century
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       The Race to Decipher Cuneiform in the 19th Century
        
       Author : Petiver
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2025-03-20 14:30 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
        
       | irchans wrote:
       | The article is a very enjoyable history of how Cuneiform was
       | deciphered by a small group of often competing scholars.
        
         | bazzargh wrote:
         | it's a bit odd at the end referring to "a German high school
         | teacher and amateur decipherer who, in 1802, looked at Aramaic-
         | related inscriptions..." without naming him like everyone else
         | mentioned - that is Georg Friedrich Grotefend. The explanation
         | of how he managed to translate some cuneiform (but was then
         | ignored) is interesting too
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Friedrich_Grotefend#Deci...
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-23 23:01 UTC)