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Cuneorum Clavis Or The Primitive Alphabet and Language of the Ancient Ones of the Earth by Means of Which Can be Read the Cuneiform Inscriptions on ... and Other Remains Discovered in Assyria
1875. It is the object of the present work to direct the attention of the literati of England and of all who feel interested in the question, " Which was the primitive alphabet of man?" to a discovery made by the author in the year 1848.
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1875
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Daniel Smith
590 books40 followersLibrarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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March 17, 2024the description from Weiser Antiquarian Books, Inc.
The author, Daniel Smith, was an eccentric amateur linguist, whose interest in the language of ancient Assyria was fired by viewing the displays at the British Museum of the discoveries made by Layard at Nimrud and of Nineveh. Smith observed what he thought were similarities between the cuneiform letters and those of the Greek alphabet, and began work to reconstruct a proto-alphabet, which he eventually decided was Hebrew, but written in triangular shapes. In 1851 some mysterious circumstance caused Smith to flee London for Australia, where he eventually published the first of the fruits of his studies in 1864. Convinced that the literary and scholarly world would embrace his genius, he returned to England in 1867, only to find himself dismissed and ignored. He responded by haunting the meetings of relevant learned societies, and accusing the experts of being frauds who deliberately ignored his discoveries to cover their own ignorance.
The author, Daniel Smith, was an eccentric amateur linguist, whose interest in the language of ancient Assyria was fired by viewing the displays at the British Museum of the discoveries made by Layard at Nimrud and of Nineveh. Smith observed what he thought were similarities between the cuneiform letters and those of the Greek alphabet, and began work to reconstruct a proto-alphabet, which he eventually decided was Hebrew, but written in triangular shapes. In 1851 some mysterious circumstance caused Smith to flee London for Australia, where he eventually published the first of the fruits of his studies in 1864. Convinced that the literary and scholarly world would embrace his genius, he returned to England in 1867, only to find himself dismissed and ignored. He responded by haunting the meetings of relevant learned societies, and accusing the experts of being frauds who deliberately ignored his discoveries to cover their own ignorance.
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