Cuneiform and the Invention of Writing

The Invention of Writing
It's almost impossible for us to imagine a time before writing. We have the culture of the Ancient Near East to thank for this critical invention. You might be disappointed to learn that writing was not invented to record stories, poetry, or prayers to a god. The first fully developed written script, cuneiform, was invented to account for something unglamorous, but very important - surplus commodities: bushels of barley, head of cattle, jars of oil!

The origin of written language was born out of economic necessity and was a tool of the theocratic (priestsly) ruling elite who needed to keep track of the agricultural wealth of the city states. The last known document written in the cuneiform script dates to the first century B.C.E. Only the hieroglyphic script of the Ancient Egyptians had a longer span of usage.


Cuneiform script tablet from the Kirkor Minassian collection in the Library of Congress. From Year 6 in the reign from Amar-Suena/Amar-Sin between 2041 and 2040 BC.

A Reed and Clay Tablet
A single reed, cleanly cut from the watery banks of the Euphrates or Tigris river, when pressed cut-edge down into a soft clay tablet, will make a wedge shape. The arrangement of multiple wedge shapes, two to more than ten, created cuneiform characters. Characters could be written horizontally or vertically, although generally the former was more widely used.

Very few cuneiform signs have only one meaning; most have as many as four. Cuneiform signs could represent a whole word or idea or a number sign, but most frequently, they represented a syllable. A cuneiform syllable could be a vowel alone, a consonant plus a vowel, a vowel plus a consonant and even a consonant plus a vowel plus a consonant. Basically, there isn’t a sound that a human mouth can make that this script can’t record.

Probably because of this extraordinary flexibility, the range of languages that were written with cuneiform across the land and history of the Ancient Near East is vast and includes: Sumerian, Akkadian, Amorite, Hurrian, Urartian, Hittite, Luwian, Palaic, Hatian and Elamite.

Clay tablets were the typical forms on which writing in cuneiform occurred, and these tablets ranged in size from little more to an inch to several inches long. Letters written on clay tablets would be placed in clay envelopes and “addressed” in cuneiform. Cuneiform was also carved into particularly important stone stelae (such as the Law Code of Hammurabi or Neo Assyrian wall reliefs) and dedications were inscribed in cuneiform on clay cones which were laid at the foundation of palaces and temples identifying to whom the structure was dedicated and who built it.

Cylinder Seals
Cuneiform was used to record official accounting, governmental and theological pronouncements and a wide range of correspondence. Nearly all of these documents required a formal “signature,” or the impression of a cylinder seal.

Cylinder seals are small pierced spherical objects, like long beads, which were carved (in reverse, or intaglio) and hung on strings of fiber or leather. These often beautiful objects were ubiquitous in the Ancient Near East and remain a unique record of individuals from this era. Each seal was owned by one person and was used and held by them in particularly intimate ways, such as strung on a necklace or bracelet. When a signature was required, the seal was taken out and rolled on the pliable clay document, leaving behind the positive impression of the reverse images carved into it. However, some seals were valued not for the impression they made but rather for the magic they were thought to possess or even just for their beauty.

Jasper cylinder seal and impression showing monstrous lions and lion-headed eagles,
Mesopotamia, Uruk period, 4100 B.C.E.–3000 B.C.E., (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

The first use of cylinder seals in the Ancient Near East dates earlier than the invention of cuneiform, to the Late Neolithic period (7600–6000 B.C.E.) in Syria. However, the thing that is most remarkable about cylinder seals is their scale and the beauty of the semi-precious stones from which they were carved. The images and inscriptions on these stones can be measured in millimeters and feature incredible detail. The stones from which the cylinder seals were carved include agate, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, steatite, limestone, marble, quartz, serpentine, hematite and jasper; for the most distinguished there were seals of gold and silver. To study Ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals is to enter a uniquely beautiful, personal and detail miniature universe of the remote past, but one which was directly connected to a vast array of individual actions mundane and momentous.

Art historians are particularly interested in cylinder seals for at least two reasons. First, it is believed that the images carved on seals accurately reflect the pervading artistic styles of the day, in the particular region of their use. In other words, each seal is a small time capsule of what sorts of motifs and styles were popular during the lifetime of the owner. These seals, in their great numbers, then, offer important information with which we can understand the developing artistic styles of the Ancient Near East.

The second reason why art historians are interested in cylinder seals is because of the iconography used on them. The images carved onto seals are almost hieroglyphic, in that each character, gesture and decorative element can be “read” and reflected back upon the owner of the seal revealing his or her social rank and associations and even sometimes the name of the owner. Although the same iconography found on seals can be found on carved stelae, terra cotta plaques, wall reliefs and paintings, its most complete compendium exists on the thousands of seals which have survived from antiquity.

Text by Dr. Senta German