Historical Mesopotamian clay seals provide clues to the origin of writing

The world’s oldest recognized writing system could have had its origins within the imagery on adorned cylinders used to indicate possession. Among the symbols on these cylinder seals correspond to these utilized in proto-cuneiform, a type of proto-writing utilized in Mesopotamia.

The discovering signifies that the invention of writing in Mesopotamia was a decentralised course of, during which many individuals throughout a large space contributed to the set of symbols used.

“There’s been this longstanding reconstruction of how writing appeared in Mesopotamia, which is arguably the earliest invention of writing in the world,” says Silvia Ferrara on the College of Bologna in Italy. “We’re retracing the trajectory in a way that’s more, I would say, colourful, less straitjacketed.”

The oldest recognized true writing system is cuneiform, invented round 3200 BC in Mesopotamia. It was preceded by an easier system referred to as proto-cuneiform, which was in use from 3350 to 3000 BC.

Proto-writing like proto-cuneiform is distinguished by a scarcity of grammatical guidelines, which suggests it can not convey complicated meanings, says Amy Richardson on the College of Studying within the UK, who wasn’t concerned within the analysis. As an illustration, proto-cuneiform can be utilized to label one thing as “seven bushels of wheat”, however solely true writing like cuneiform can say “seven bushels of wheat will be delivered to you”.

The origins of proto-cuneiform have usually been traced to clay tokens. These got here in a wide range of shapes, resembling discs and spheres, and had been usually engraved with patterns. The tokens might be pressed into moist clay, creating a logo. Among the symbols on the tokens are just like these present in proto-cuneiform, as documented by Denise Schmandt-Besserat on the College of Texas at Austin in her two-volume guide Earlier than Writing in 1992.

There may be some proof for a task of tokens within the origin of proto-cuneiform, says Ferrara. “But you cannot explain all the signs.”

Ferrara and her colleagues Kathryn Kelley and Mattia Cartolano, additionally on the College of Bologna, have as a substitute explored one other supply of symbols: cylinder seals. These cylindrical objects have patterns and pictures embossed on them, and depart an oblong assortment of symbols when rolled over sheets of moist clay. The symbols usually referred to items being transported, or to directors concerned in transactions, says Cartolano.

The crew examined cylinder seals from a large space of south-west Asia, together with Mesopotamia, that dated to 4400 to 3400 BC. They discovered a number of symbols that corresponded to proto-cuneiform symbols.

“One of the clearest examples that we found is the use of the images of fringed cloth and vessel in a net,” says Cartolano. These have well-understood meanings: they confer with the transport of products. And they’re discovered each on cylinder seals and proto-cuneiform tablets.

The concept the symbols on cylinder seals led to a few of the symbols in proto-cuneiform was beforehand recommended by Holly Pittman on the College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in a 1994 guide chapter and developed in later publications. “I am gratified that, 30 years after I first proposed the fundamental role of seal imagery in the origins of proto-cuneiform script, that a new generation of scholars have taken up my idea and, with their expertise in cuneiform script, have put details to my argument,” says Pittman. She provides that within the Nineteen Nineties her thought was dismissed “without serious consideration”.

“I find it to be very convincing,” says Richardson. “There does seem to be a really neat correlation in the particular examples that they’re illustrating in this article.” Her personal analysis has discovered that cylinder seals had been additionally used to report interactions between cities.

This doesn’t imply that tokens didn’t play a task. “I think there’s still some strong arguments to make that those tokens really are part of the foundation of abstraction,” says Richardson. Specifically, they appear to have been essential for the event of counting programs.

If proto-cuneiform actually did come up on this hodge-podge approach, drawn from tokens, cylinder seals and presumably different sources, it might inform us one thing about who was inventing it, says Ferrara. “There is evidence for making a claim that the invention of writing in Mesopotamia was, in fact, much more decentralised than we think,” she says. Whereas highly effective individuals in the most important metropolis of Uruk little doubt performed a task, maybe so did different directors and tradespeople scattered over the area. “I think there’s evidence for having a more widespread… and more distributed prompt to writing,” she says.

Writing was first used for administration, not for storytelling. “Those first written records tend to be about trying to organise materials, goods, people, things,” says Richardson. “It’s very much about trying to find ways of creating a social system.”