Ancient Mesopotamian clay seals offer clues to the origins of writing

The world’s oldest known writing system may have its origins in the paintings of decorated cylinders used to indicate ownership. Some of the symbols on these cylindrical seals correspond to those used in Protocuneiform, a form of protowriting used in Mesopotamia.

This discovery shows that the invention of writing in Mesopotamia was a dispersed process, with many people from a wide range of regions contributing to the set of symbols used.

Silvia Ferrara, from the University of Bologna in Italy, said: “There have been many years of reconstruction of how writing emerged in Mesopotamia, but this is probably the world’s oldest invention of writing.” “We’re following a trajectory in a more colorful, less constrained way.”

The oldest known true writing system is cuneiform, invented in Mesopotamia around 3200 BC. This was preceded by the introduction of a simpler writing system called Protocuneiform, which was used from 3350 to 3000 BC.

Amy Richardson of the University of Reading, UK, who was not involved in the research, said that original texts like proto-cuneiform are characterized by a lack of grammatical rules, making them unable to convey complex meanings. For example, you can use proto-cuneiform to label something as “7 bushels of wheat,” but only a precise script like cuneiform can say “7 bushels of wheat are delivered to you.” is.

The origins of proto-cuneiform can often be traced back to clay tokens. These came in a variety of shapes, including disks and spheres, and were often carved with patterns. You can press the token into wet clay to create a symbol. Some of the symbols on the tokens are similar to those found in proto-cuneiform, as described in a two-volume book by Dennis Schmant-Besselat of the University of Texas at Austin. before writing In 1992.

There is some evidence for the role of tokens in the origin of proto-cuneiform, Ferrara said. “But you can’t explain all the signs.”

Ferrara and her colleagues Kathryn Kelly and Mattia Caltrano, also at the University of Bologna, instead studied another source of symbols: cylinder seals. These cylindrical objects are embossed with patterns and images, and when rolled over a sheet of wet clay, they leave behind a collection of rectangular symbols. These symbols often referred to the goods being transported or the managers involved in the transaction, Caltrano said.

The researchers examined cylinder seals dating from 4400 BC to 3400 BC from a wide region of southwest Asia, including Mesopotamia. They discovered several symbols that corresponded to those of proto-cuneiform.

“One of the clearest examples we found was the use of images of fringed cloth and containers within the netting,” says Caltrano. These have well-understood meanings and refer to the transportation of goods. And they are found both on cylinder seals and original cuneiform dials.

The idea that cylinder seal symbols connect to some of the proto-cuneiform symbols was previously proposed by Holly Pittman of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in a 1994 book chapter, and developed in subsequent publications. . “Thirty years after I first proposed the fundamental role of seal images in the origin of proto-cuneiform, a new generation of scholars has adopted my ideas and drawn on their cuneiform expertise to elaborate on them. I’m happy that you’ve clarified that, and I’m going to refute my claims,” Pittman said. She added that her ideas were rejected “without serious consideration” in the 1990s.

“I think this is very compelling,” Richardson says. “There seems to be a really neat correlation in the specific examples they describe in this article.” In her own research, cylinder seals were also used to record interactions between cities. It turns out that.

This doesn’t mean tokens don’t play a role. “I think there are still some strong arguments that these tokens are actually part of the foundation of the abstraction,” Richardson says. It seems to have been especially important for the development of counting systems.

If proto-cuneiform really arose in such a hodgepodge way, drawn from tokens, cylinder seals, and perhaps other sources, that tells us something about who invented it. Ferrara says he might give it to you. “There is evidence to argue that the invention of writing in Mesopotamia was actually much more dispersed than we think,” she says. There is no doubt that the powerful people of the metropolis of Uruk played a role, but probably other administrators and merchants scattered throughout the region as well. “I think there’s evidence that writing prompts are becoming more widespread and more distributed,” she says.

Writing was initially used for management, not for storytelling. “First written records tend to try to organize materials, goods, people, things,” says Richardson. “It’s about trying to find ways to build social systems.”