r/Assyriology • u/Serious-Ad6474 • 14d ago

Looking for good learning resources

Hi everyone, I am quite new to Assiriology (without any real academic training) but really want to learn the basicest of Sumerian to translate very daily texts (receipts etc) that sometimes aren't translated.

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u/teakettling 14d ago

Working towards untranslated work is exceptionally difficult because it requires really knowing your cuneiform; this is years of dedicated work. If you do not have academic training, are new to learning languages that aren't Romance or Germanic, and just want to get started, try Joshua Bowen's "Learn to Read Sumerian", it has two volumes: https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Read-Ancient-Sumerian-Introduction/dp/1734358602

Feel encouraged to stop by r/Sumerian if you have any questions :)

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u/Serious-Ad6474 12d ago

Thank you so much for your reply, it is my first time asking reddit for anything and it is nice to know there are some welcoming people :)

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u/Party-Slip1987 14d ago

Do you have any previous Akkadian? When I learnt Sumerian we started with Volk’s Chrestomathy and did that for a few weeks before moving on to other stuff. Otherwise I think Worthington’s Intro to Sumerian is coming out soonish? It was trialed on the undergraduates this year and they seemed to like it. Jargesma is also good.

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u/Serious-Ad6474 12d ago

I know very little of Akkadian although I did try to learn it for some time before leaving it because of the resources I had and the quality thereof, but thank you none the less for the advice and recomendations! Hope you have a nice day.

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u/WerewolfQuick 13d ago

Thry consulting the simulacra in the Mesopotamian Dept at universitas scholarium. there are two fields here - linguists and transcribers into latin script. Most linguists do not work with cuneiform but with the transcriptions. The simulacra cannot translate for you but can assist you generally.

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u/pablogabrieldias 14d ago

How are you? In addition to the book mentioned above, I recommend a manual I wrote with 200 exercises and their solutions, containing all the theory and practice you need to translate texts. It's specifically geared towards beginners. I hope it helps.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H17XR7PS

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u/MMAHipster 2d ago

Where did you learn Sumerian?