Grammatical elements, in the form of phonetic signs appear in about 2600 BC and it is then clear that the texts are in the Sumerian language. The earliest cuneiform tablets are lists, in which the signs are words (including numbers) or parts of words, and it is not obvious what language is being written. Many cuneiform signs can also take purely phonetic values. Walker ( Cuneiform, British Museum Press).Ī cuneiform sign can stand for a whole word, or part of a word, or it can indicate that the following or preceding word is the name of a person, god, plant, fish, bird, etc. An excellent introduction to cuneiform is given by C.B.F. In its formative stage, with symbols scratched on clay tablets, rather than formed using the later wedge-shaped strokes, it is probably the earliest writing system in the world. The use of clay means that an enormous amount of material has survived, albeit in a fragmentary state, and we can now read letters, legal documents, omens, medical texts, and many other records written between two thousand and five thousand years ago. It used characters built up from wedge-shaped strokes (hence the term cuneiform, derived from the Latin word cuneus meaning a wedge), and most texts were written on clay tablets. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987.Cuneiform was a system of writing, dating from before 3000 BC until the early years AD. Série II Philologie, Volume 1.) Neuchâtel – Paris: Recherches et Publications, 1992. Archéologie et Environment – Philologie et Cultures – Histoire. Syllabaire élamite: histoire et paléographie. Kommission für den Alten Orient der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Beiheft 2.) Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1989. Inventar und Interpretation der Keilschriftzeichen aus Boghazköy‐Texten. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East. Nissen, Hans J., Peter Damerow, & Robert K. Paris: Li‐brairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1976. Manuel d'épigraphie akkadienne (Signes, Syllabaire, Idéogrammes). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. On Language and the Rise of a Base for Counting.

Gottingen: Van‐denhoeck & Ruprecht, 1973. Hittite Hieroglyphs and Luwian: New Evidence for the Connection. Forgotten Scripts: Their Ongoing Discovery and Decipherment. Chapters 7 & 8 (204ff 214ff 275–297 Chapter 8 with Robert K. Translated from The German by Renate Hanauer.

Essays on the Cultural Evolution of Thinking. Veröffentlichungen zur Kultur und Geschichte des Alten Orients, 6.) Neukirchen‐Vluyn: Butzon & Bercker Kevelaer, (with updates).ĭamerow, Peter. (After Orient und Altes‐Testament, Sonderreihe.

Cuneiform by C.B.F. Walker