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Cuneiform: A Brief History

Cuneiform: A Brief History. By Claudia and Liam. Development. 4000BC (first settlers of Mesopotamia) 4000-3000BC (Sumerian arrive in the area, roughly) 3500BC (proto-cuneiform in Syria and Turkey) 3500-3000BC ( Uruk )

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Cuneiform: A Brief History

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  1. Cuneiform: A Brief History By Claudia and Liam

  2. Development • 4000BC (first settlers of Mesopotamia) • 4000-3000BC (Sumerian arrive in the area, roughly) • 3500BC (proto-cuneiform in Syria and Turkey) • 3500-3000BC (Uruk) • 3000-2500BC- number of pictographs reduced, and rebus principle was introduced. The writing direction changed from vertical to horizontal - left to right. • 1800BC • 0-100AD – Cuneiform disappears, to be replaced by Latin/Roman alphabet.

  3. Pre-Cuneiform (4000BC – 3000BC) In 4000BC the first settlers arrived in Mesopotamia. The exact date of when the Sumerian’s arrived is unknown (4000-3500bc). It is believed that the Sumerian’s, who are credited with being the first inventors of writing, might have adapted and developed their script from the predecessors. Kramer writes that the Sumerian’s might not have... “invented the script, it was certainly they who, in the third millennium bc, fashioned it into an effective writing tool”. - (Kramer 1963, 302)

  4. Cont. Why was it created? • Created by temple administrators and priests, one of its main purposes was to record and keep track of temple activities and resources. • Also, to manage and administrate crop and harvest related affairs. • For accounting, trade, general administration etc.

  5. Cuneiform and the Rebus Principle(3000BC – 100AD) Around 2500BC saw a decrease in pictograph clay tablets, to be replaced by “wedge-shaped signs, formed by impressing the tip of a reed or wood stylus into the surface of clay tablet. Modern (nineteenth-century) scholars called this type of writing cuneiform after the Latin term for wedge, cuneus.” -(Heilburnn Timeline of Art History Website). Also around this time the Sumerian's changed from writing horizontally to vertically, presumably for efficiency.

  6. Cont. Rebus Principle = using existing symbols for their sounds regardless of their meaning, to represent new words. For example: a drawing of an eye could represent the word “I”. A picture of a pea could represent “urine”. The Rebus Principle was a natural evolution of Cuneiform, as the language became more complex, and there was a great demand for a written way of expressing intricate ideas.

  7. What came out of Cuneiform? • The invention of Cuneiform resulted in the first formal education systems. • Written laws, which an important step in fair justice. • History, without writing the Sumerian civilisation would never have been rediscovered (for example). • Life as we know it (BOOM!)

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