The Alphabet (1100 BC) Settlement of Jericho (8000 BC) Invention of the Potter's Wheel (3400 BC) Development of Writing (3300 BC) The Reign of Hammurabi (1792 BC) Agriculture (10,000 BC)

ESSENTIAL QUESTION  How did cuneiform writing emerge and evolve in ancient Mesopotamia?  How did the cuneiform writing system affect Mesopotamian civilization? KEY TERMS  Cuneiform: a type of wedged shape writing that developed in Mesopotamia  Scribes: a professional writer  Stylus: a pointed writing tool cut from a reed  Tablet: a flat clay slab used for writing

Cuneiform: “Wedge-Shaped” Writing

 Cuneiform, meaning "wedge," is the term applied to a mode of writing which used a wedge-shaped stylus to make impressions on a clay surface, and also on stone, metal, and wax.  Most of the clay tablets were sun-baked, making surviving tablets very fragile.  This technique originated in ancient southern Mesopotamia and the earliest texts in cuneiform script are about 5000 years old.

Tablet of pre-cuneiform script South Mesopotamia Uruk III, end of 4th millenium BC. Clay (?sun-baked clay) Louvre  At first, the Sumerians used stone and clay tokens, which represented various goods and numerical values, to keep track of their sales.  Around 3200 B.C. these tokens were replaced by markings made on clay tablets and written language was born.  The first cuneiform writings consisted of pictograms, drawings of the items represented.  Shortly thereafter ideograms, or abstract symbols, were also used.

Cuneiform Writing

 Cuneiform recorded all important activities, from the sale of land to marriage and adoption contracts.  By the middle of the third millennium BCE, the Sumerian written language was developed enough to record oral epic poetry, such as The Epic of Gilgamesh

Deciphering Cuneiform

Challenges: –Learning several thousand symbols The symbols represent words – not letters Think about how many words you know… –Creating a tablet –Storing the tablet

Sumerian Scribes “Tablet House”

1835: Henry Rawlinson, an English army officer, found some inscriptions on a cliff at Behistun in Persia. Carved in the reign of King Darius of Persia ( BC), they consisted of identical texts in three languages: Old Persian, Babylonian and Elamite.

Gilgamesh Epic Tablet: Flood Story