History Of Cuneiform

571 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The sumerian civilization an essay

In the country in which we know today as Iraq was where the beginning of writing was created. In Mesopotamia, the ancient Sumerians developed the first writing system, cuneiform. The term cuneiform, which means “wedge-shaped writing” was coined by nineteenth- century scholars and the invention of cuneiform shaped the future for all civilizations. This paper will explore the history of cuneiform, the evolution of writing and never ending impact it had on history.
The writing system that we know today as cuneiform was created by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C.E. within the Uruk Period. The region of Sumer is commonly considered the cradle of civilization. Being located in between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, Sumerians were skilled farmers, sailors, and traders. The land was very fertile which led to the flourish of trade. With the increase of trade there was a need to keep track of it all. The economic necessity called for the need to keep track of all agricultural wealth. The start of writing was used to record goods such as jars of oil, bushels of barley, and ...

Show More
Related

  • Sumerian DBQ: Contribution Of Mesopotamians To Society

    368 Words  | 1 Pages

    Cuneiform was the first ever form of writing. The Sumerians were the main inventors of this writing. The symbol as we know them now consist of lines and wedges. One of the

    Read More

  • The Development of Writing and Social Hierarchies

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    Writing is perhaps the most important building block of communication - after verbal speech, of course. Writing, like most of human civilization, has its roots in ancient Mesopotamia. The first writing systems began in a style known as cuneiform (Cuneiform, 2013). These wedge-shaped markings have their roots in Sumerian culture and were used predominantly for record keeping and accounting. At the archaeological site of Uruk in what is modern day Iraq, a great wealth of knowledge has been gained from the artifacts located there. Uruk was a ceremonial site and is home to the world’s oldest known documented written documents (Price and Feinman, 2013). The documents discovered list quantities of goods that may have been stored at Uruk, leading archaeologists to believe that writing in this part of the world was developed primarily to keep lists of transactions and stockpiled quantities of goods located at the site.

    Read More

  • Mesopotamian Civilization Dbq Essay

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first civilization to rise was the Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Egypt, along the Nile River. It’s split in two ecological zones. In the south Babylonia (irrigation is vital) and north Assyria (agriculture is possible with rainfall and wells). By 4000 B.C.E., people had settled in large numbers in the river-watered lowlands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have shown that large-scale irrigation appeared only long after urban civilization had already developed, meaning major waterworks were a consequence of urbanism (population). Mesopotamia cities were made of people called the Summerians in the land of Sumer located on the south of Babylonia. The Summerian city was one of

    Read More

  • How Did The Industrial Revolution Affect The Development Of New English Language Typefaces?

    3479 Words  | 7 Pages

    Humans have been using written language to communicate ideas with one another since as early as 3200 BCE in Mesopotamia. Since then, every great civilization has had a written language, each with its own unique characteristics. However, it was the writin...

    Read More

  • Ancient Mesopotamia Dbq

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt are a factor of the evolution of civilizations in present-day. Though, it wouldn’t occur if both of these ancient civilizations didn’t develop into successful ones. There are three similar components that led Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia to become prosperous. These are the locations, their way of life, and their beliefs. All of these elements will be explored more thoroughly throughout this essay.

    Read More

  • The Decipherment of Linear A and Linear B

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1886 an archeologists named Arthur Evans discovered an ancient stone that was engraved with mysterious writings. Through continuous investigation and research Evans made a connection between the mysterious writing system and the Aegean empire of the ancient Minoans. Later Evans discovered another unique form of writing that was very similar to the first one he discovered. Evans called these forms of writing Linear A and Linear B. Linear A and B is a form of writing systems that were used by ancient Crete. Evans named them “Linear” because the writings were formed in a linear structure instead of being a pictograph which was a very popular writing form during that time. Evans also discovered that Linear A was a predecessor of Linear B. The writing forms Linear A and Linear B opened up a new world of discovery for the archeologist of that time period. In return these writings made communications between people easier and became a stepping stone for our world a language today.

    Read More

  • Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics: The Rosetta Stone

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Countries all over the world have been interacting for decades using their own unique writing systems. Around 3000 B.C., ancient Egyptians used a writing system called hieroglyphics that lasted until the late Roman times (Rude 133). The meaning of these “pictures” remained unknown until 1822 when the ‘French linguistic genius’ Jean-Francois Champollion made the discovery (Rossini 6). The Rosetta Stone was a slab of stone that was key in the process of understanding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (Sing 2). The Rosetta Stone was carved in 196 B.C. and eventually found in 1799 in a small village called Rosetta near the Nile River in Egypt by French soldiers who were rebuilding a fort in Egypt (“The Rosetta Stone” 2).

    Read More

  • Cuneiform

    469 Words  | 1 Pages

    The earliest writing in Mesopotamia was a picture writing invented by the Sumerians who wrote on clay tablets using long reeds. The script the Sumerians invented and handed down to the Semitic peoples who conquered Mesopotamia in later centuries, is called cuneiform, which is derived from two Latin words: cuneus , which means "wedge," and forma , which means "shape." This picture language, similar to but more abstract than Egyptian hieroglyphics, eventually developed into a syllabic alphabet under the Semites (Assyrians and Babylonians) who eventually came to dominate the area.

    Read More

  • The Epic of Gilgamesh and Sumerian Culture

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gilgamesh is introduced as knowing all things and countries including mysteries and secrets that went on a long journey and had his story engraved on stone. This gives us a little information on the writing technique in Sumeria. Sumerian art was complex. Clay was the Sumerians' most widely used material. Sumerian available because of the invention of cuneiform writing before 3000 B.C. The characters consist of wedge-like strokes, impressed on clay tablets. This system of writing developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley, probably by the Sumerians The history of the script is strikingly like that of the Egyptian hieroglyphic. This must have been the technique that Gilgamesh uses in order to transcribe his story onto these clay tablets. It was reinforced in the story by mentioning it at the beginning and end of the Epic.

    Read More

  • Ancient Near East

    1591 Words  | 4 Pages

    Millions of years ago the procreant low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris was probably the home of some animal life, but no great civilizations. However, things change over time, and just a few thousand years ago the same fertile low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris became the home of a very rich and complex society. This first high society of man was located in what some still call "Mesopotamia". The word "Mesopotamia" is in origin a Greek name meaning "land between the rivers." The name is used for the area watered by the Euphrates and Tigris and its tributaries, roughly comprising modern Iraq and part of Syria. South of modern Bagdad, this alluvial plain was called the land of Sumer and Akkad. Sumer is the most southern part, while the land of Akkad is the area around modern Bagdad, where the Euphrates and Tigris are closest to each other. This first high, Mesopotamian society arose as a combined result of various historical, institutional, and religious factors. The reality of these factors occurring at a specific place within the fabric of space / time indeed established the basis for this first high civilization. Items like irrigation, topography, and bronze-age technical innovations played a big part along with the advent of writing and the practice of social conditioning (through the use of organized religion) in this relatively early achievement of man.

    Read More

  • The Rise and Fall of Early Civilizations

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    That was an act of human creation of the Near Eastern river valleys of Sumer and Egypt. Cuneiform writing in Sumer and the hieroglyphics in Egypt was developed in this time period. Such things as the Code of Hammurabi and the fall of the Assyrian Empire, The Persian wars, assassination of Julius Caesar, it was also the start of the Greco-Roman Age, and the end of the Roman Empire in the West.

    Read More

  • Story and Truth in Edwin Blashfield's The Evolution of Civilization

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nineteenth century British explorer Henry Rawlinson was among the first archeologists to draw attention to the importance of cuneiform writing. Arguably, his most valuable discovery was the monument at Bisitun in present-day Iran; Bitisun is a massive memorial to Darius, famed king of ancient Persia. Accor...

    Read More

  • Essential factors to produce a successful civilization

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... helped the architecture to have accurate measurements . Another civilization that also developed a system of writing was China. The written language could be easily to read and understand, but when they spoke it it was difficult to understand. This civilization had a big advantage with the system of writing because all parts of china everyone could learn the language even if they already spoke a different language. This helped make a great civilization because it unifies a large and diverse land and this helped to control it easier. One disadvantage it has is that the writing system has a lot of things to memorize. So if you were a wealthy kid and went to a good school you could memorize the major part of the language, but if you were in the lower class and went to a cheap school then you had trouble learning the language because they didn’t teach the whole language

    Read More

  • Essay On Akkadian Empire

    393 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Akkadian language continued as the main language of Mesopotamia into the first millennium BC. The Assyrian and Babylonian languages both developed from Akkadian dialect. Cuneiform writing found its way in varying forms by the Egyptians, Persians, Hittites, and Syrians. Correspondingly, the Akkadians influenced and left wonderful works of art that included sculpture and relief work. Archeology also shows evidence of roads, a postal service, and an astrological calendar. While the empire disappeared, its legacy

    Read More

  • Mycenaean Civilization

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Mycenaean civilization flourished for four hundred years in the late Bronze Age before collapsing in to small bands of subsistence farmers. Some historians attribute this decline to ‘the Sea People’ who terrorized the Egyptians, Anatolians and the Hittites. But could a mysterious people who left no archeological proof of their existence really bring about the collapse of entire civilizations?

    Read More

More about History Of Cuneiform

Open Document