#5 Cuneiform Writing

As the small villages of Sumer developed into the more renowned ancient Sumerian cities of Ur, Nippur, Uruk to name a few, so did the need to develop a system of recording information about their daily lives and the stories that were being communicated at that time (these becoming the history for us to discover today). The clay tablet and stylus were the writing implements that the scribes being the responsible persons trained to utilize them. The stylus' indentations left a mark on the damp clay and this resulted in wedge shapes being formed. These symbols produced in this wedge (in Latin - 'cunei') shape gave name to this type of script - cuneiform. Cuneiform writing was in use for approximately 3000 years and evolved from being picture signs (pictograms) representing objects, to sound signs (phonograms) that represented the sounds of the language and each of these signs subsequently represented a syllable.

From the early beginnings of recording simple information, Sumerian writing and the re-telling of information or the language of the people, developed into various forms of literature written in cuneiform including myths, poetry, hymns and the law at about 2500BC. Cuneiform writing also transgressed to become the written language of other civilizations including the Babylonians, Assyrians and Persians.

I located this interesting video link that shows images (and commentary) that helps to explain symbolic writing and the progression more complex forms of writing.
[Youtube video Written Word - Birth of Writing date accessed 15/10/09]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7JsfwAcCo0