Cuneiform

Without writing, the only way to communicate ideas is verbally, which means that a thought can only travel so far. Only through writing can people convey complex thoughts and pass on detailed information, across time and space.

Even before the Egyptians first used hieroglyphics, the Sumerians of the fourth millennium b. c. produced the first form of written language, cuneiform (cue-NAY-i-form). The name cuneiform is Latin for “wedge-shaped.” Indeed its symbols do look like wedges placed at various angles to one another.

Cuneiform may have influenced the development of hieroglyphics, with which it shared many similarities. As with

A clay tablet covered with cuneiform writing. The tablet was found in Ebla, Syria. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.

Hieroglyphics, the earliest cuneiform symbols were pictograms, or pictures of the thing they represented: a picture of a man, for instance, for “man.” Some of these pictograms came to stand for other concepts related to the function of the object depicted. Thus a foot could symbolize walking, or symbols could be joined to produce a new idea. Hence the combination of pictograms for mouth and water meant drink. Eventually the Sumerians developed phonograms, symbols that stood for sounds or syllables. This made writing much easier. Before the introduction of phonograms, cuneiform had as many as 2,000 symbols. Later, the number was reduced to 600—which is still a large number compared to the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet.

The Sumerians used cuneiform to record the great Gil-gamesh Epic (GIL-guh-mesh). They also developed a much more practical use for cuneiform: keeping track of money. In any business situation, it is important to maintain a record of what one spends and what one receives. This is called accounting. People keep accounts on a personal level today (for example, by balancing a checkbook). Businesses do it on an even bigger scale, often employing full-time accountants for the task.

Using a sharp stick called a stylus, a Sumerian accountant would make an impression in a soft clay tablet, recording the details of who paid what to whom. Later the tablet would be baked and would harden, a permanent record of a business transaction. Thousands and thousands of years later, when archaeologists examined the ruins of Sumer, some of the first evidence of Sumerian culture that they found were what people today would call receipts!