Cuneiform writing of the Sumerians
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The origin of writing has been one of the most important achievements of humanity because, thanks to this system of symbols, the different civilizations were able to interact with each other, in addition to leaving samples of what her life was like. In this lesson from a TEACHER we bring you a summary of the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians since these were the creators of the writing system, then, before them, we can say that populations used symbol systems, which today the vast majority are unknown.
Index
- What is cuneiform writing?
- Cuneiform script support
- What was this system created for?
What is cuneiform writing?
Let's start this summary of the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians placing us in the IV millennium BC. C. epoch in which the populations of the south of Mesopotamia began to represent words by means of objects, appearing therefore the first symbolic writings.
These objects were not abstract, that is, to speak of a house you could paint a house; thus we will find in the year 3500 a. C. the known
Kish tablet. Years later, this writing was evolving and those symbols that were used stopped being used in favor of the progressive use of symbols, this Once, abstract, elements that facilitated the use of writing in the different towns that began to have news about this medium of communication.So for the year 2600 BC C. the symbols had already been totally detached from the words they represented. These means were, little by little, used by the different civilizations that interacted with the Sumerians, such as the Elam, Hittites, Akkadians and even the Persians.
Over the years, writing would evolve from about 2000 symbols to the use of 600, since many of them in other cultures had no meaning whatsoever.
In this other lesson we will discover the origin of the Sumerians.
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Cuneiform script support.
Another of the most important points is undoubtedly the support used for this. We must know that Mesopotamia was a land rich in clayIn fact, it had hardly any other construction material, hence the fact that its buildings were made of adobe.
Similarly, they would use clay tablets (uncooked) to write and as a pencil, they used a wedge-shaped beveled stick (usually the stem of a plant was used), hence the name cuneiform.
With the passage of time, the different civilizations that adopted this writing were improving it, such as the Akkadians who began to write both in stone and in metal.
What was this system created for?
However, the most important point in our summary of Sumerian cuneiform writing is the reason for its creation. Undoubtedly, it has been a very important issue, because prior to that period, the various populations had not had the need to create a system to communicate; For this reason, one of the elements that had to be studied was the difference that these had to need to create something different.
The Sumer region was occupied early by a people known as the Sumerians, which were creating a series of settlements that, over time, became city-states. These were governed by the temple, which collected all the products and then redistributed them, creating a redistributive society.
But when the population was already too large and the surpluses were increasing, the same temple was seen in the need to create a system to be able to account for profits, this being what triggered the creation of writing.
In the same way, the appearance of this system forced the appearance of specialists, people who were exempted from work in the field, to be able to dedicate themselves to other tasks, although they would also receive a part of the redistribution as payment for their services, from that way, class differences appeared.
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