The Babbling Problem

Let’s talk about one of the greatest mysteries we have solved: reading ancient languages! In Genesis 11, we read about the tower of Babel. After the flood, humans refused to scatter over the earth and instead decided to disobey God and remain in the plains of Shinar. Here, they began constructing a large tower that would reach into the heavens. But God confused their languages, so they could not continue this building project, and they dispersed over the face of the earth.

Because of this, people get married to and connect with those they can communicate with. Also, from this event, we get different people groups, languages, and cultures. Many of these cultures preserved their history through writing, but if no one could read the writing, how could we know how they lived? Can you imagine living during the time when we didn’t know how to read hieroglyphics (picture writing) and cuneiform (wedge-shaped writing)? These are some of the most ancient languages we have, yet we could not read them for hundreds of years.

Hieroglyphics from a stone inscription dated to the fourteenth century BC. Louvre Museum, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Possibly the oldest world map with writing in ancient cuneiform. Dated to the sixth century BC. British Museum. Object Number: 92687., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Archaeologists found ancient cities but needed help to read the writing. What should we do? How would we solve this problem? Thankfully, in 1799, members of Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt found a large stone near Rashid on the Mediterranean coast. This stone contained hieroglyphic writing, demotic script (a different form of hieroglyphs), and Greek.

Rosetta stone dated to around 196 BC. Ptolemy V Epiphanes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A man named Jean-François Champollion knew Greek and Coptic (an Egyptian language written with the Greek alphabet). He then read the Greek portion of what would be called the Rosetta stone, cracking the code for reading ancient Egyptian writing!

But what about cuneiform? How did we solve this riddle? At the foot of the Zagros Mountains in the Kermanshah region of Iran, an inscription carved 330 feet up on a cliff was noticed by Europeans and then copied by army officer Sir Henry Rawlinson (1835–1847).

A steel engraving of the Behistun inscription published in 1863. Rocher du Bisoutoun, Émile Théodore Therond, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

If you think you love archaeology, Rawlinson had to climb 330 feet in the air to copy this inscription from a thin ledge without falling off!

Henry Rawlinson copying the Behistun inscription.

After years of dedication, Rawlinson determined that the inscription contained three languages: Babylonian, Old Persian, and Elamite. The first thing Rawlinson could identify was the name of the Persian king Darius I (the same Darius mentioned in the book of Daniel), who reigned during the sixth century BC. Because Rawlinson knew Persian and several other languages, he could decipher multiple texts and unlock the code of three other ancient languages! Another riddle solved!

In both discoveries, the people who solved the riddles took what knowledge they had of languages and used those skills to interpret these ancient languages, opening a wealth of knowledge for all of us. How amazing! Can you imagine where we would be in archaeology if these two men gave up? We wouldn’t know about all the different pharaohs of Egypt and kings from Mesopotamia. I look forward to seeing what new languages we can understand and interpret as we continue solving these riddles that began at the tower of Babel.