The Assyrian hieroglyphs

30 November 2022

This year we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphic script by Jean-François Champollion. The figurative nature of this writing has always been a source of fascination. In ancient times, it already had a significant influence on the Assyrian rulers who invented their own hieroglyphic system. 

Assyriologists have long been intrigued by the series of symbols that appear on some of the inscriptions of certain rulers of the Assyrian Empire. These symbols are found, for example, on glazed brick panels of Sargon II (721-705) or on the ends of clay prisms of Assarhaddon (680-669), and on a black stone dated to the latter ruler. For a long time, scholars considered these drawings to be symbolic representations of royal power. A new examination in the mid-1990s showed that in fact these images could be interpreted by reading them as a kind of cryptographic writing. 

Irving Finkel and Julian Read[1] inform us that the sequence of seven motifs, always depicted in the same order on coloured bricks, appeared in pairs on the doorways of the temples of the gods Sîn (Moon), Shamash (Sun) and Nabû (god of scribes) in Dûr-Sharrukîn, the capital of Sargon II.

Credit: V. Place & F. Thomas, Nineveh and Assyria, 1867.

They propose reading them as follows: KING, i.e. "Sargon"; LION, an animal symbolising royalty, i.e. "king"; BIRD (aribu) a play on the word rabû, meaning "great"; BIRD, another animal symbolising royalty, or 'king'; FIGURE (MA = tittu), a pun on MA = mâtu "country"; SOWING CAR (shûrû), a pun on (Ash)shur; PERSON pointing to the ground, a pun on KI = erṣetu, the earth, determinative of city names. This sequence would therefore be translated as "Sargon, Great King, King of the land of Ashshur".

We can see here the sovereign’s desire to create a kind of Assyrian hieroglyphic writing, inspired by that of the Egyptians, and which, like the latter, could be read in two ways. The figures looked towards the doors and the friezes were placed opposite each other on both sides of the doors. They should therefore be read from left to right as well as from right to left. This secret writing also had a decorative purpose.

Among the objects attributed to Assarhaddon is a black stone bearing a cuneiform inscription. The face bears a series of drawings that can also be found on the ends of three clay prisms that were likewise made by this king. According to the same principle, the Assyrian hieroglyphs on the face of the black stone would read as follows: "Aššur-aha-iddin (Assarhaddon), king of upper and lower Mesopotamia".

In an inscription of Assarhaddon, the king refers to foundation documents for Babylon made of black stone and baked clay, and bearing drawings. This is a clear reference to the objects described above. He also explains: "I have reproduced drawings on them representing the writing of my name". The Assyrian ruler aspired to conquer Egypt and thus dominate the world. The creation of Assyrian hieroglyphs was a step towards the realisation of this ambition.

[1] I. L. Finkel and J. E. Read, Assyrian Hieroglyphs, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 86, 1996, pp. 244-268.