Assyriology PhD student Pavla Rosenstein takes you step-by-step through the translation of a Sumerian cuneiform tablet inscribed in the 3rd millennium BCE and currently housed in the Yale Babylonian Collection. Follow the YBC account for a fascinating deep dive into the oldest written and translated language in human history. This inscription reads: “Gudea, the ruler of Lagash, built a temple for Ninshubur, the aide of the heavens, his mistress.” | Yale Peabody Museum

Behistun Relief, a Cuneiform Rosetta Stone. In the early nineteenth century, archaeologists first began to excavate cuneiform tablets so that scholars could begin to attempt to understand their texts. One important early key to deciphering the script proved to be the discovery of a kind of cuneiform Rosetta Stone, a circa 500 B.C. trilingual inscription at the site of Behistun Pass in Iran. Written in Persian, Akkadian, and an Iranian language known as Elamite, it recorded the feats of the Achae