Cuneiform Writing
Throughout ancient times there were many forms of writing that influenced the way we all write
today. These forms of writing originated in ancined Eygpt, Greece and and even earlier from, Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was
an ancient cicilization that is well known for its infamous temples, forms of writing and ancient rivers. Mesopotamia was
home of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The name Mesopotamia actually means the "land between the rivers". These important
aspects of the country affected a large portion of ancient civilizations. The rivers acted as a fertilizer and helped
farmers all over the area. Besides the river, Mesopotamia was known for something even more notorious. This civilzation
was the home of the orginal form of writing. Sumerians were the majority of the people that lived in ancient Mesopotamia.
Sumerians had a huge impact on the way certain societies ran in the past and still run today. One of the greatest accomplishments
completed by the Sumerians was Cuneiform.
Cuneiform was the world's first known writting system. If you really stop and think about it,
the first writting system ever invented was a really big accomplishment that effects every aspect of life today. Ancient
Sumerians named this writing system Cuneiform because it means; wedge-shaped. Cuneiform was picture writing created on clay
tablets. The Sumerians completed these writings using long reeds, but had no set name for the scripts. The system was
obviosly a lot more complex and difficult compared to today's form of writting, but generally gave us the original idea. The
ancient scripts were passed down to the "Semitic" people of Mespotamia and they had then classified the form of scripts
as "Cuneiform" writing.
The word Cuneiform comes from two latin words-cuneus , which means "wedge," and forma
, which means "shape." The pictures used in the form of cuneiform are similar to those used in the pictures of the
ancient Eygptian form of writing called hieroglyphics. The original Cuneiform looked like symbols scraped into clay or wood.
Pictograms, or drawings representing actual things, were the idea behind Cuneiform writing.
As with heiroglyphics animals and human behaviors were the main idea behind this form of writing. Cuneiform was adapted
by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Sumerians and Assyrians to write their
own languages and was used in Mesopotamia for about 300 years. This reminds me of English.
The way English has been used in Ireland, england, the United States and Canada, along with many other countries. After
being adopted the forms of Cuneiform would slightly change, the way English also did. After many years of being used Cuneiform
being to fade out, and less and less people used this form of writing. In about 1835 it was rediscovered by English
army officer Henry Rawlinson. He found a clay tablet containging writings in this form. After many years of being forgotten
the original form of writing was introduced once again.
If it wasn't for Cuneiform , countries all over the world's writing being
used today may be altered or may not be as advanced as they are. The ancient Mesopotamians introduced the first form
of writing. Before hieroglyphics, before Greek, Cuneiform was created. It is hard to look back on such an ancient time and
think this is why the world has such a reliable way of communication. As advanced the world is today it is some times easy
to forget how the simplest things invented thousands of years ago were the basis of all the technology we use today. Those
simple inventions led to the complexity of the world today. In my mind they are some of the most imperitive inventions created.
form of Cuneiform
clay tablet Cuneiform was carved on
