Lexical lists

As Lexical lists are a group of cuneiform texts, which are partly written in multiple languages ​​, especially in Sumerian and Akkadian. They are commonly the scientific literature of the ancient Near East and are attributed to the deciphering of cuneiform and the understanding of ancient Near Eastern languages ​​is crucial.

Lexical lists are one of the oldest written records of humanity at all. Already in the early 3rd millennium BC, the Sumerians began the compilation of smaller lists of cuneiform signs. Since the cuneiform in this early period was logographic, these characters are lists at the same time word lists. With the advancement of writing to Syllabografie the number of characters used decreased, while the written words with them diverse and abstract were. So already extensive lists of objects that were written with compound words originated in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. They contained lists of objects of various materials (wood, leather, metal, stone, etc. ), plants, animals, people groups, geographic regions, stars and gods. The order of the items mentioned followed local traditions, with BC through continued the tradition of Nippur in the late 3rd millennium.

Of particular scientific interest are multilingual lists. It is now believed that they served the study of foreign languages ​​in particular. Thus, already from the archives of Ebla two-column lists are known in which in a column are Sumerian terms, which are assigned in the other column Akkadian words or relative clauses. In this way, up to now the meaning and reading of Sumerian characters are reconstructed, as the Akkadian language is widely known.

During the second millennium BC, some types were standardized and canonized by lexical lists and combined into large board series. These series are usually denoted by their Incipit and consist of up to several tens of sheets. Also widened the application of such lists that are now about also list the variations of radicals, or have been extended to post comments.