The first written language in Mesopotamia is called Sumerian. Most of the early tablets come from the site of Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia, and it may have been here that this form of writing was invented. Early Writing Tablet recording the allocation of beer, B. E, Late Prehistoric period, clay, probably from southern Iraq.
The symbol for beer, an upright jar with pointed base, appears three times on the tablet. Beer was the most popular drink in Mesopotamia and was issued as rations to workers. Alongside the pictographs are five different shaped impressions, representing numerical symbols.
One sign, in the bottom row on the left, shows a bowl tipped towards a schematic human head. These texts were drawn on damp clay tablets using a pointed tool. It seems the scribes realized it was quicker and easier to produce representations of such things as animals, rather than naturalistic impressions of them. They began to draw marks in the clay to make up signs, which were standardized so they could be recognized by many people. From these beginnings, cuneiform signs were put together and developed to represent sounds, so they could be used to record spoken language.
Once this was achieved, ideas and concepts could be expressed and communicated in writing. Cuneiform is one of the oldest forms of writing known. Letters enclosed in clay envelopes, as well as works of literature, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh have been found. Historical accounts have also come to light, as have huge libraries such as that belonging to the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal B. Cuneiform writing was used to record a variety of information such as temple activities, business and trade.
Cuneiform was also used to write stories, myths, and personal letters. The latest known example of cuneiform is an astronomical text from C. During its 3,year history cuneiform was used to write around 15 different languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Elamite, Hittite, Urartian and Old Persian.
It contains approximately , texts and fragments and is perhaps the largest collection outside of Iraq. By the 4th century B. They began using clay containers instead of cloth ones, and instead of putting stones inside of them, they stamped the outside of the envelopes that indicated the number and type of tokens inside. One could then "read" the envelope to know what information was being conveyed. Gradually, Sumerians developed symbols for words.
At first these phonemes one symbol for one thing, instead of letters to make a word symbolized concrete things; for example, an image of a sheep meant a literal sheep.
Then another leap of abstraction was introduced when symbols were developed for intangible ideas, such as God, or women.
Cuneiform, in other words, evolved from a way to track and store information into a way to explain the world symbolically. The marks became more abstract over the centuries. These marks and signs took the form of triangular wedge shapes. Cuneiform marks became more abstract because it made the system more efficient: they were fewer marks to learn.
And for the most part, cuneiform needed to become more complex because society was becoming so as well. The origins of writing lie in the need to keep better records, not, as many might assume or wish, to express oneself, create art, or pray. This means we could use it equally well today to spell Chinese, Hungarian or English. The first stage used elementary pictures that were soon also used to record sounds. Amazingly, cuneiform continued to be used until the first century AD, meaning that the distance in time that separates us from the latest surviving cuneiform tablet is only just over half of that which separates that tablet from the first cuneiform.
Both of which were freely available in the rivers alongside the Mesopotamian cities where cuneiform was used now Iraq and eastern Syria. It refers to the shape made each time a scribe pressed his stylus made from a specially cut reed into the clay.
Assyrian, 7th century BC. British Museum 21 January Cuneiform code chart from cuneiform by Irving Finkel and Jonathan Taylor. More stories. Curator's corner Trade and contraband in ancient Assyria 2 April Read story. Back to top.
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