The most ancient monument of Sumerian writing is a tablet from Kish, which was dated to about 3500 BC. Plates were made of clay by the Sumerians, until the material finally hardened, strokes were applied to them with a wooden stick. Subsequently, this method of writing was called cuneiform.
Instruction manual
1
During the excavation of the city of Uruk, clay tablets were found around 3300 BC. This allowed scientists to conclude that writing contributed to the rapid development of cities and the complete restructuring of society. In the east was the kingdom of Elam, and between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates - the Sumerian kingdom. These two states conducted trade, and therefore writing was an urgent need. In Elam, pictograms were used that the Sumerians adapted.
2
In Elam and Sumer, tokens were used - clay chips of various shapes, which denoted single objects (one goat or one ram). A bit later, tokens began to be marked: serifs, fingerprints, triangles, circles and other figures. Tokens were stacked in containers with a seal. To find out about the contents, it was necessary to break the capacity, count the number of chips and determine their shape. Subsequently, the container itself began to be designated which tokens are in it. Soon, these chips lost their meaning. The Sumerians were content only with their imprint on the container, which turned from a ball into a flat plate. Using the corners and circles on such plates indicated the type and number of objects or objects. By definition, all signs were pictograms.
3
Over time, icon combinations have become stable. Their meaning consisted of a combination of images. If a bird with an egg was painted on the plate, then it was a question of fertility and procreation as an abstract concept. Pictograms have become ideograms (symbolic images of ideas).
4
After 2-3 centuries, the style of Sumerian writing cardinally changed. To simplify the reading, the characters were laid out in wedges - small segments. In addition, all of the symbols used began to appear rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise.
5
The styles of many words and concepts become standardized over time. Now, not only letters of administrative designation, but also literary treatises can be applied to tablets. In II BC, Sumerian cuneiform writing was already used in the Middle East.
6
The first attempt to decipher the Sumerian script was made by Grothefend in the middle of the 19th century. Rawlinson continued his work later. The subject of his study was the Behistun manuscript. The scientist found that the tablets that fell into his hands were written in three languages and represent the Elamite and Akkadian scripts - direct descendants of the Sumerian script. By the end of the 19th century, the late forms of cuneiform writing were finally deciphered thanks to dictionaries and archives found in Nineveh and Babylon. Today, scientists are trying to understand the principle of proto-Sumerian writing - the prototypes of the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians.
