_How the Cuneiform Inscriptions were deciphered.—Grotefend’s guess.—Lassen and Rawlinson’s studies.—Discoveries of Botta, Layard, George Smith, and Rassam.—Certainty of our present knowledge._ The decipherment of the cuneiform or wedge-shaped inscriptions of Assyria has been one of the most marvellous achievements of the present century. It has often been asked how Assyrian scholars have been enabled to read an Assyrian text with almost as much certainty as a page of the Old Testament, although both the language and the characters in which it is written were utterly unknown but a few years ago. A brief history of the origin and progress of the decipherment will best answer the question.…
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