Download Junior Division Paper By Nick Cannestra THE CUNEIFORM

Junior Division
Paper
By
Nick Cannestra
THE CUNEIFORM
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The hieroglyphic called Cuneiform was the largest communication advancement the
Sumerians of Mesopotamia have made for us. It was the beginning of the art of
writing. Imagine the world without writing or words.
Cuneiform was one of the very first writing systems. “Cuneiform writing was deciphered
when a 19th century explorer scaled a cliff to copy a clay tablet from the Persian King Darius I
(522-486 BC). The explorer bragged about his exploits in three languages (Akkadian, Elamite,
and Old Persian)”. (archaeology.about) The explorers writings, and what he didn’t realize at the
time, was the beginning of one of the most important advancements of writing and recording
historical thoughts and events.
“It began as a system of simple pictographs (images that represented a single word). For
instance, the early pictograph for a duck might be a small image of a duck, and the early
pictograph for a warrior might be a stick-figure warrior. The archaic system actually involved
dragging the tip of a stylus in the clay to create lines and shapes. It was clumsy to memorize,
especially since the scribe had to learn 1,500 symbols for 1,500 different
words”. (web.cn.edu) However, “children could learn it surprisingly quickly because they often
consider clay homework in spiked wedges much more exciting than exercises in biro on paper”
(Wheeler). Imagine having 1500 letters in our alphabet. Twenty-four letters seemed like a lot to
learn when you were young. 1500 letters would have been much more challenging.
But, that
way of writing became a very important part of the Sumerians daily work. Just like teachers
have to record grades in a book or online, the Sumerians needed to keep track of important
information as well.
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Cuneiform evolved over time. “The first stage used elementary pictures that were soon
also used to record sounds. Cuneiform probably preceded Egyptian hieroglyphic writing,
because we know of early Mesopotamian experiments and ‘dead-ends’ as the established script
developed – including the beginning of signs and numbers – whereas the hieroglyphic system
seems to have been born more or less perfectly formed and ready to go.” (historyextra). Just like
emails and texting have become so important in our daily lives now, Cuneiform was becoming
just as important in the lives of the Sumerians many years ago.
“Living in major cities with centralised economies in what is now southern Iraq,
Sumerians used The Cuneiform on a daily basis. Temple officials needed to keep records of the
grain, sheep and cattle entering or leaving their stores and farms and it became impossible to rely
on memory. So, an alternative method was required and the very earliest texts were pictures of
the items scribes needed to record (known as pictographs).” (britishmuseum) Text messages of
today still use pictures, but ours include emoticons and other pictures. You could say texting
began hundreds of years ago!
Texting has become a common way of communicating today. “Ancient writings offer
proof that our ‘modern’ ideas and problems have been experienced by human beings for
thousands of years – this is always an astounding realization. Through Cuneiform, we hear the
voices not just of kings and their scribes, but children, bankers, merchants, priests and healers –
women as well as men. It is utterly fascinating to read other people’s letters, especially when
they are 4,000 years old and written in such elegant and delicate script.” (historyextra) In
Mesopotamia, all those years ago, the Sumerians were really starting to use their “voices” on
clay tablets.
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Cuneiform was the main writing of the Sumerian people. It is pronounced (q-nee-aform). I have stumbled across a few people that have pronounced it (Q-na-form), where the (a)
is short. I learned the correct way to pronounce the word when I talked with one of the
anthropologists at the Milwaukee Public Museum. There is an exhibit there that contains tablets
with Cuneiform writing. (Milwaukeepubmuesuem). Cuneiform looks like writing using many
types of symbols, mostly arrows.
Cuneiform, “[is] complex and hard to read yet [there are] degrees of complexity and even
a layman can make sense of cuneiform text. “ (livius) Look below at some Cuneiform
characters. (carolineludovici)
“The Cuneiform characters here are, essentially a bunch of arrows that the Sumerians
used as their writing. Looking at another tablet below, you can see where there might be
similarities in our own alphabet that we use today, like the “t” or the “z”. Additionally, the
below picture takes the Cuneiform one step further and names the alphabet letter to the
associated Cuneiform character”. (pinterest)
I think they look like a bunch of golf tees.
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The encyclopedia Britannica’s description is, “Cuneiform is a system of writing used
in the Middle East. The name a conage from Latin and Middle French root meaning wedge
shaped. “ (britannica.). “The earliest cuneiform tablets, known as proto-cuneiform, were
pictorial, as the subjects they addressed were more concrete and visible (a king, a battle, a flood)
but developed in complexity as the subject matter became more intangible (the will of the gods,
the quest for immortality). We can make an assumption that this was an early version of the
alphabet we use today. Cuneiform was a writing system used between roughly 5,300 and 1,950
years ago, so for more than 3,300 years. That makes it the longest-lasting writing system in
known history-longer than the Chinese writing system, which has existed for about 3,200 years.
Cuneiform was invented by the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern, relatively coastal
Iraq between about 10,000 and 4,000 years ago. It was first used to write Sumerian, and later
Akkadian and a number of other languages. Although other writing systems were developed
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independently in China and by the Mayans, Cuneiform is the oldest attested writing system, and
evidence of any older writing systems has either not been discovered or not survived. Scholars
dispute whether the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which are a totally different writing system, owe
something to Cuneiform or were invented independently.” (omnliglot). While these writings
have developed over time, they have not been completely replaced, and prove the importance of
Cuneiform.
Most people write everyday around the world. Either on paper, on their computer, or
texting on their phone, characters are put together to form words, sentences, paragraphs, and
stories. Newspapers tell the news every day using these valuable words. Imagine the world
without writing. The invention of Cuneiform was so important to the world. It developed over
time, but there are similarities to today’s written words. It was one of the most important
advancements in history.
Cuneiform is the most important advancement because it appears, from my research, that
it was used the longest. It was used longer than hieroglyphics. It was the most important
because we wouldn’t have the same kind of writing we would today without Cuneiform.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
“history-world.org. N.p.” Jan. 2007. Web 17 Nov. 2015. The most widely known system in
the Middle East was the Cuneiform the ancient writing. Cuneiform is not a language.
“http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/cuneiform.htm N.p., n.d”. Web 11 Jan. 2016.
Cuneiform writing was deciphered when 19th century explorer went to a cliff to copy a
clay tablet from the Persian king Darius I bragging about his findings in three languages.
(Akkadian, Elamite, and Old Persian).
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“https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Cuneiform.pdf. N.p., n.d.” Web 7 Dec. 2015. The first
known system of writing is Sumerian Cuneiform which dates back to c. 3300 BCE. It
began as a system of simple pictographs (images that represented a single word).
“https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/cuneiform-inscriptions N.p.” 2016. Web 7 Dec. 2015. This
website helped me in my research regarding how Cuneiform was put on clay tablets during the
Ur III Dynasty.
“http://www.britishmuseum.org, N.p., n.d.” Web 3 Dec. 2015. This website taught me about
children and Cuneiform
“http://www.historyextra.com/article/feature/cuneiform-6-facts-about-worlds-oldest-writingsystem , N.p.” 2016. Web 2 Feb. 2016.
“http://www.mrdowling.com N.p., n.d.” Web 3 Dec. 2015. Eventually, most cultures developed
phonetic writing systems where a symbol represents a sound rather than an object.
Mark, Joshua J. “www.ancient.eu/cuneiform”, 28 Apr. 2011. Web 17 Nov. 2015. It has info on
how the Assyrians, Babylonians, and the Sumerians developed Cuneiform.
“www.britannica.com, N.p., n.d.” Web 3 Dec. 2015. Cuneiform is a system of writing used
in the Middle East. The name a conage from Latin and Middle French root meaning
wedge shaped.
Milwaukee Public Museum. Anthropologist. 20 Nov 2015. I talked to an anthropologist about
Cuneiform and he clarified the pronunciation of the word and the new exhibit at the
museum.
Secondary Sources
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Kreis, Steven. “www.historyguide.org.” 11 Sept. 2014. Web 3 Dec. 2015. This website
supports my theory of how the Cuneiform is clearly one of the most important things
that has happened on earth.
Lo, Lawrence. “Ancientscripts.com.” N.d. Web 17 Nov. 2015. This website clarifies how
Cuneiform is not alphabetic and syllabic. But the point in my paper was that Cuneiform
was the foundation of the alphabet.
“www.carolineludovici.com.” N.p., n.d. Web 2 Feb. 2016. I took a Cuneiform picture and
referenced it in my paper from this website.
“www.livius.org.” N.p., n.d. Web 23 Nov. 2015. This website talked about the difficulty in
learning the Cuneiform.
"www.pinterest.com." N.p., n.d. Web 2 Feb. 2016. I took a picture from this website because it
showed today's alphabet character in relationship to some of the Cuneiform characters.
"www.omnligot.com." N.p., n.d. Web 23 Nov. 2015. This website gave me information about
what parts of the world used Cuneiform and compared it to hieroglyphics.