Cuneiform script

Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer, 3100–3000 BCE

Cuneiform script, one of the earliest systems of writing, was invented by the Sumerians. It is distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself simply means "wedge shaped".

Emergance

Main: Sumerian writing

Cuneiform writing of the Sumerian language, began as a system of pictographs from the late fourth millennium BCE (the Uruk IV period), which stemmed from an even earlier system of shaped tokens used for accounting. In the third millennium, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use grew smaller (Hittite cuneiform). The system consists of a combination of logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic and syllabic signs.

Usage

Cuneiform script was used in many ways in ancient Mesopotamia. It was used to record laws, like the Code of Hammurabi. It was also used for recording maps, compiling medical manuals, and documenting religious stories and beliefs, among other uses. Studies by Assyriologists like Claus Wilcke and Dominique Charpin suggest that cuneiform literacy was not reserved solely for the elite but was common for average citizens. According to the Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture, cuneiform script was used at a variety of literacy levels: Average citizens needed only a basic, functional knowledge of cuneiform script to write personal letters and business documents. More highly literate citizens put the script to more technical use, listing medicines and diagnoses and writing mathematical equations. Scholars held the highest literacy level of cuneiform and mostly focused on writing as a complex skill and an art form.

Adaptation

The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Semitic Akkadian (Assyrian/Babylonian), Eblaite and Amorite languages, the language isolates Elamite, Hattic, Hurrian and Urartian, as well as Indo-European languages Hittite and Luwian; it inspired the later Semitic Ugaritic alphabet as well as Old Persian cuneiform. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–612 BC). By the second century AD, the script had become extinct, its last traces being found in Assyria and Babylonia, and all knowledge of how to read it was lost until it began to be deciphered in the 19th century.

Transcription

Main: Cuneiform signs

Cuneiform transcription is the process in which an epigraphist makes a line art drawing to show the signs on a clay tablet or stone inscription in a graphic form suitable for modern publication. Not all epigraphists are equally reliable, and before a scholar publishes an important treatment of a text, the scholar will often arrange to collate the published transcription against the actual tablet, to see if any signs, especially broken or damaged signs, should be represented differently.

Transliteration

Main: Cuneiform transliteration

Transliteration is the process in which a Sumerologist decides how to represent the cuneiform signs in Roman script. Depending on the context, a cuneiform sign can be read either as one of several possible logograms, each of which corresponds to a word in the Sumerian spoken language, as a phonetic syllable (V, VC, CV, or CVC), or as a determinative (a marker of semantic category, such as occupation or place). (See the article Transliterating cuneiform languages.) Some Sumerian logograms were written with multiple cuneiform signs. These logograms are called diri-spellings, after the logogram 'diri' which is written with the signs SI and A. The text transliteration of a tablet will show just the logogram, such as the word 'diri', not the separate component signs.

Decipherment

Main: Decipherment historiography

Cuneiform script are logographic symbols that were generalized using a wedge-shaped stylus to impress shapes into wet clay. The archaic "wedge-shaped" mode of writing was adapted to the Akkadian writing system in the mid third millennium BCE. Deciphering cuneiform is based on Akkadian glossaries, the “Rosetta Stone” for Sumerian. By the time of the "Sumerian Renaissance" (Ur III) of the 21st century BCE, Sumerian was written in already highly abstract cuneiform glyphs directly succeeded by Old Assyrian cuneiform.

Inscription

Inscription by Entemena of Lagaš

Template:See also This text was inscribed on a small clay cone c. 2400 BC. It recounts the beginning of a war between the city-states of Lagaš and Umma during the Early Dynastic III period, one of the earliest border conflicts recorded. (RIME 1.09.05.01)

I.1–7	Cuneiform sum 𒀭𒂗𒆤 𒈗 𒆳𒆳𒊏 𒀊𒁀 𒀭𒀭𒌷𒉈𒆤 𒅗 𒄀𒈾𒉌𒋫 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒄈𒋢 𒀭𒇋𒁉 𒆠 𒂊𒉈𒋩
	den-lil2 lugal kur-kur-ra ab-ba dingir-dingir-re2-ne-ke4 inim gi-na-ni-ta dnin-ĝir2-su dšara2-bi ki e-ne-sur
	"Enlil, king of all the lands, father of all the gods, by his firm command, fixed the border between Ningirsu and Šara."
8–12	Cuneiform sum 𒈨𒁲 𒈗𒆧𒆠𒆤 𒅗 𒀭𒅗𒁲𒈾𒋫 𒂠 𒃷 𒁉𒊏 𒆠𒁀 𒈾 𒉈𒆕
	me-silim lugal kiški-ke4 inim dištaran-na-ta eš2 gana2 be2-ra ki-ba na bi2-ru2
	"Mesilim, king of Kiš, at the command of Ištaran, measured the field and set up a stele there."
13–17	Cuneiform sum 𒍑 𒉺𒋼𒋛 𒄑𒆵𒆠𒆤 𒉆 𒅗𒈠 𒋛𒀀𒋛𒀀𒂠 𒂊𒀝
	uš ensi2 ummaki-ke4 nam inim-ma diri-diri-še3 e-ak
	"Ush, ruler of Umma, acted unspeakably."
18–21	Cuneiform sum 𒈾𒆕𒀀𒁉 𒉌𒉻 𒂔 𒉢𒁓𒆷𒆠𒂠 𒉌𒁺
	na-ru2-a-bi i3-pad edin lagaški-še3 i3-ĝen
	"He ripped out that stele and marched toward the plain of Lagaš."
22–27	Cuneiform sum 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒄈𒋢 𒌨𒊕 𒀭𒂗𒆤𒇲𒆤 𒅗 𒋛𒁲𒉌𒋫 𒄑𒆵𒆠𒁕 𒁮𒄩𒊏 𒂊𒁕𒀝
	dnin-ĝir2-su ur-sag den-lil2-la2-ke4 inim si-sa2-ni-ta ummaki-da dam-ḫa-ra e-da-ak
	"Ningirsu, warrior of Enlil, at his just command, made war with Umma."
28–31	Cuneiform sum 𒅗 𒀭𒂗𒆤𒇲𒋫 𒊓 𒌋 𒃲 𒉈𒌋 𒅖𒇯𒋺𒁉 𒂔𒈾𒆠 𒁀𒉌𒍑𒍑
	inim den-lil2-la2-ta sa šu4 gal bi2-šu4 SAḪAR.DU6.TAKA4-bi eden-na ki ba-ni-us2-us2
	"At Enlil's command, he threw his great battle net over it and heaped up burial mounds for it on the plain."
32–38	Cuneiform sum 𒂍𒀭𒈾𒁺 𒉺𒋼𒋛 𒉢𒁓𒆷𒆠 𒉺𒄑𒉋𒂵 𒂗𒋼𒈨𒈾 𒉺𒋼𒋛 𒉢𒁓𒆷𒆠𒅗𒆤
	e2-an-na-tum2 ensi2 lagaški pa-bil3-ga en-mete-na ensi2 lagaški-ka-ke4
	"Eannatum, ruler of Lagash, uncle of Entemena, ruler of Lagaš"
39–42	Cuneiform sum 𒂗𒀉𒆗𒇷 𒉺𒋼𒋛 𒄑𒆵𒆠𒁕 𒆠 𒂊𒁕𒋩
	en-a2-kal-le ensi2 ummaki-da ki e-da-sur
	"fixed the border with Enakale, ruler of Umma"

See also

• Cuneiform historiography