The name “cuneiform” comes from the Latin cuneus, which means wedge-shaped. Cuneiform writing has a very distinctive wedge shape.
There are three things that are necessary for something to be considered a writing system. Firstly, the symbols it uses must have a purpose or some kind of meaning. Secondly, there must have some kind of symbols on some kind of surface. Thirdly, the symbols must mimic a spoken language to make communication possible.
Writing has existed since at least 8000 BC, but it was not a proper writing system. A tortoise shell found in Jiahu, China, has been radiocarbon dated to 6000 BC and it has characters carved into it. However, they were symbols that represented ideas, and not a system of writing. It is called protowriting. The fact that the carvings from this date were found suggests that the symbols and the idea of representing ideas with characters had existed for some time.
Sumerian Cuneiform started in 3300 BC, but there was a long history of writing before it reached that point. Sumer was located where Iraq is today. It is known as one of the earliest, or even the earliest civilization. It is also one of the places on Earth where writing started.
Neolithic clay tokens that were used for accounting livestock or commodities have been found in the area. When people started to live in larger and larger communities, it became necessary to keep track of things. There is only so much that can be remembered, so a counting and an accounting system became necessary. This was in about 8000 BC. The counting system might have started with someone using counters to represent a thing, such as a goat, but that wouldn’t be very effective and the clay tokens took off. That style evolved into clay tablets that could be written on with a reed stylus and stored.
The Sumerians invented a numerical system for counting and they slowly increased the number of characters they needed to represent different things. By 3300 BC, this had evolved into the world’s first complete writing system.
The progression from protowriting to writing is fascinating. It began by using images to represent specific objects. For example, a picture of a goat was carved into a tablet with the character for two above it. Obviously meaning two goats were bought by somebody, or owed to somebody by somebody else. The number of images that were needed slowly increased as more things were kept, bought, or traded. Then, over time, they started using the protowriting system to record other information, such as battles that happened, kings that fought in them, weather, and so on. The number of characters they needed increased, but it still wasn’t technically a writing system.
The next jump was trying to convey ideas that weren’t so concrete. Such as the will of the gods, immortality, religions. They had to increase the number of characters and change the way they approached the writing system. The symbols started to represent words rather than images. They could write “honor”, rather than just, “an honorable man”.
The next step was attaching phonetic sounds to certain symbols. Once this was done, words could be written and it was finally a proper and complete writing system.
Cuneiform was used from its invention in 3300 BC to about 100 AD when it fell out of use. Over 3000 years altogether. During this time, it evolved dramatically. It began as a very pictorial language, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, but it evolved as more people started to write. The pictorial system is difficult to write quickly, so it was simplified. The number of characters was cut from about 1500 to 600. Then, when it became used as an alphabet, the number of characters was cut again to 42.
The civilization of Sumer and its language didn’t last as long as the writing system. There was a great drought in about 2000 BC and Sumer appears to have disappeared. The writing system carried on, being used by other languages for another two thousand years.
The writing system was used for 15 different languages over the centuries. It obviously started with the Sumerian language because it was invented by the Sumer people. However, that language disappeared with the disappearance of the Sumer people. It was used for Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Elamite, Hittite, Urartian and Old Persian, amongst others.
There are many buildings that have cuneiform written on them and about two million cuneiform tablets have been excavated. The majority of them haven’t been translated.
So, cuneiform is a protowriting system that first began in about 8000 BC. By 3300 BC it had become a true writing system and it gradually evolved over three millennia to become an alphabet with 42 characters. The writing script disappeared in about 100 AD. And this is what I learned today.
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Photo By Unknown author – http://www.schoyencollection.com/religions_files/ms3029.jpg
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sumerian-language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing#Inventions_of_writing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiahu_symbols
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin%C4%8Da_symbols
https://omniglot.com/writing/sumerian.htm
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/213-1605/features/4326-cuneiform-the-world-s-oldest-writing
https://www.worldhistory.org/cuneiform/
https://www.livescience.com/25221-drought-killed-sumerian-language.html