Slide 1
Early Mesopotamian writing recorded goods and allocations
Some of the earliest surviving writing from Mesopotamia records goods and allocations. Keeping track of resources was central to the early development of the system.
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The evidence includes tablets associated with Uruk near the end of the fourth millennium BCE. Their survival makes administration unusually visible; it does not mean every spoken idea or social practice was recorded.
Slide 2
Clay preserved the marks that became cuneiform
Scribes marked moist clay with tools. Over time, wedge-shaped impressions became characteristic of the writing now called cuneiform.
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Cuneiform is a script, not one language. It was adapted for several languages over its long history, so identifying the writing system does not by itself identify the language of a particular tablet.
Slide 3
An account needed both a number and a category
An account must identify what is being counted as well as the quantity. Early signs connect numerical information with commodities and institutional activities.
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Five containers of grain and five animals are not interchangeable merely because both involve five. The original comparison shows why accounting requires categories, units and context alongside a numerical mark.
Slide 4
Sound values let signs represent more language
Writing developed beyond direct pictures of objects. Using signs for sounds made it possible to represent a wider range of language.
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The rebus principle uses a sign associated with one word for its sound in another expression. This is a linguistic change, not simply a decision to draw more detailed pictures of additional objects.
Slide 5
Cuneiform expanded into literature, law and scholarship
Later cuneiform texts include literature, law and scholarship as well as administration. A practical recording technology became part of a much wider written culture.
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A record’s original purpose affects how it should be read today. A ration list, a royal inscription and a literary narrative offer different kinds of evidence even when all use clay and related signs.
Sources
- The Origins of Writing
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- How to write cuneiform
British Museum