The cuneiform was first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia between 3500 and 3000. C., approximately. This writing system is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians. Definitely, it was the greatest contribution of the Sumerian city of Uruk. This city advanced in cuneiform writing around 3200 BC. C.
The term comes from the Latin word cuneus for 'wedge', due to the wedge-shaped writing style. In cuneiform writing, a carefully cut writing utensil is pressed into soft clay to produce wedge-like impressions that represented signs for words or pictographs.
Sumerian inscription on archaic style monument. Search results. XXVI century BC
Later, concepts of words, or phonograms, began to be represented. This was closer to the modern concept of the word.
All the great civilizations of Mesopotamia used cuneiform writing (Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, Hatti, Hittites, Assyrians, Hurrians, and others). Even after Sumerian was a dead language (around 2000 BC), it was used as a written language and was studied in scribal schools. This was abandoned in favor of alphabetic writing sometime after 100 BC.
History of cuneiform writing
Origin
The origins of cuneiform writing date back to approximately the end of the fourth millennium BC. The earliest evidence of cuneiform writing is attributed to the Sumerians. At that time, this people inhabited southern Mesopotamia and the region west of the mouth of the Euphrates, known as Chaldea.
In this sense, the oldest written records in the Sumerian language are the Uruk pictographic tablets. These were product lists or ledgers. Due to trade, there was a need to write down the accounts that merchants made. It was no longer enough to try to memorize them, due to the high amounts to remember.
Cities of Mesopotamia. 2800-2500 BC.
These were identified by drawings of the objects, accompanied by numbers and personal names. Such writing was capable of expressing only the basic ideas of concrete objects.
Then there was a transition from pure word writing to partial phonetic writing. Sumerian words were largely monosyllabic, so the signs generally denoted syllables.
Evolution of the cuneiform sign SAG "head", 3000-1000 BC
The resulting mix is called a word-syllable script. The grammatical elements were denoted by phonetic complements added to the signs of the words (logograms or ideograms).
In the course of the third millennium BC, the writing became more cursive. Furthermore, the pictograms became conventionalized line drawings. The linear strokes took on a wedge-shaped appearance when pressed into the soft clay with the slanted edge of a stylus.
This was due to the predominant use of clay tablets as writing material. The curved lines disappeared from the writing and the normal order of the signs was corrected from left to right, with no separation between words.
Development
The Sumerian writing system was adopted by the Akkadians, who invaded Mesopotamia in the middle of the third millennium. These preserved the Sumerian logograms and logogram combinations for more complex notions.
They also preserved the phonetic values but extended them well beyond the original Sumerian inventory. Many more complex syllabic values from the Sumerian logograms were transferred to the phonetic level.
In this way, the new Akkadian values brought confusion, since the pictograms could be read in various ways. No effort was made until very late to alleviate the resulting confusion, and equivalent spellings.
The expansion of cuneiform writing outside of Mesopotamia began in the third millennium. The country of Elam in southwestern Iran was in contact with Mesopotamian culture and adopted the system. L
The Elamite lateral line of cuneiform writing continued until the first millennium BC. C. It is supposed that he provided the Indo-European Persians with an external model for creating a new simplified quasi-alphabetic cuneiform script for the old Persian language.
On the other hand, the Hurrians in northern Mesopotamia and around the upper reaches of the Euphrates adopted the ancient Acadian cuneiform script around 2000 BC. C.
They passed it on to the Indo-European Hittites, who had invaded central Asia Minor at around that time. In the second millennium, the Akkadian of Babylon became a lingua franca of international relations throughout the Middle East. Cuneiform writing thus became a universal means of written communication.
Decoding
The decipherment of cuneiform writing began in the 18th century, when European scholars were looking for evidence of places and events recorded in the Bible.
When visiting the ancient Near East, many travelers and some of the early archaeologists discovered great cities like Nineveh. There they found a variety of artifacts, including thousands of cuneiform-covered clay tablets.
So the hard work of trying to decipher these strange signs began. These signs represented languages that no one had heard for thousands of years. The cuneiform signs of these different languages were gradually deciphered.
In 1857, the Royal Asian Society sent copies of a recently found clay record of King Tiglath-pileser I's hunting and military achievements to four experts: Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Edward Hincks, Julius Oppert, and William H. Fox Talbot. Each of them worked independently. The translations, by and large, matched each other.
Therefore, the cuneiform script was considered to have been successfully deciphered. However, there are elements that are not yet fully understood and the study continues.
What has been deciphered has allowed an approach to the ancient world of Mesopotamia. This has revealed information on commerce, construction and government. In addition, it has been possible to learn about his great works of literature, history and daily life in the region.
Transcription
The transcription of cuneiform signs presents greater difficulties than the transcription of ordinary Semitic alphabetic texts.
The object of these transcriptions is not only to obtain phonetic perfection, but it must also distinguish the signs used from the same sounds.
At first, many experts adopted the system of accentuating the signs. Before a greater number of homophones were discovered, this system was sufficient.
This method was used for the transcription of both Sumerian and Semitic texts. At present, there is no uniformity of criteria for the transcription of cuneiform texts.
Applications
Cuneiform writing began with the need to account for goods and record transactions. For thousands of years, Mesopotamian scribes used cuneiform writing to document daily events and business transactions.
It was also used to record astronomy and literature. This system was employed by people throughout the ancient Near East to write several different languages.
References
- Mark, JJ (2011, April 28). Cuneiform. Retrieved on January 24, 2018, from ancient.eu.
- Feliu, L. (2016). Cuneiform writing. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
- Puhvel, J. (2017, January 25). Cuneiform.. Retrieved on January 24, 2018, from britannica.com.
- The British Museum. (s / f). Decipherment. Retrieved on January 24, 2018, from britishmuseum.org.
- Thureau-Dangin, F. (1924). The Transcription of Cuneiform Signs. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 56 (S1), 61-62.