Sumerian contract for the sale of a field and a house (Shuruppak, c.2600 BC).  Dimensions are 8.5 x

Sumerian contract for the sale of a field and a house (Shuruppak, c.2600 BC).  Dimensions are 8.5 x 8.5 x 2.0 cm.There are two basic phases in the development of writing in Sumer. The earliest tablets (c. 3300 BC) are used to record economicinformation.  They use pictographs and numerals (notches and circularimpressions) drawn into the clay.  The script they use is calledproto-cuneiform.These early tablets (most from the city of Uruk) are the work ofadministrators, probably from large temple institutions.  Templeofficials had to keep records of grain, sheep and cattle entering orleaving their stores and farms.  It wasn’t possible to rely onmemory, so the earliest texts are simply pictographs – pictures ofthe items being recorded.  Early tablets also record rationsallocations for workers.The subjects of these tablets tended to be concrete and visible (e.g.a king, a cow, a battle).  But subject matter became more intangible(e.g. the will of the gods, the quest for immortality).  Cuneiformdeveloped in complexity so that it could record these things.In the second phase of writing, the shapes of signs have altered. Symbols stand for nouns (especially basic commodities), and there area few basic adjectives, but no grammatical elements yet.It was quicker and easier to produce representations of things (e.g.animals) instead of drawing them properly.  Scribes began to drawmarks in the clay to make up signs, and these signs were standardizedso they could be recognized.  Cuneiform at this time (c. 3000 BC)could be read in any language, but the underlying language wasSumerian.The impressions and strokes made by the stylus conveyed more complexword-concepts.  For example, the scribe could write about theabstract concept of honour, rather than having to specifically depict“an honourable man”.The “rebus” principle was used to isolate the phonetic (sound)value of particular signs, in order to express grammaticalrelationships and syntax.  Rebus is a device that combinesillustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words orphrases.  For example, the word “been” could be represented by abumblebee and the letter “n”.There are only a few examples of rebus in the earliest stages ofcuneiform (c. 3300 – 3000 BC).  Consistent use of rebus becomesapparent only after c. 2600 (when the above tablet was inscribed).Now you didn’t have to struggle with the meaning of a pictograph inorder to read the cuneiform.  Scribes were able to more clearlyconvey the intended meaning.  The number of characters was simplifiedfrom 1000 to 600 to simplify and clarify the written word (possiblyaround this time).This was the beginning of a true writing system, characterized by acomplex combination of word-signs and phonograms (signs for vowelsand syllables).  By c. 2500 BC, cuneiform (mostly on clay tablets)was used for a wide variety of religious, political, scholarly andeconomic documents.By the first half of the 3rd millennium (2500 – 2000BC), the script had developed enough to actually record spokenlanguage, and represent the Sumerian language.  The scope andapplication of writing had expanded to include written poetry.However, even these later scribes seldom used grammatical elements. The texts were created as memory aids, not as a literal and exactfull record.  Because of this, they are difficult to read today.When Enheduanna (2285 – 2250 BC) wrote her famous hymns to Inannain the Sumerian city of Ur, cuneiform was sophisticated enough toconvey emotional states (e.g. love, joy, betrayal, fear), as well asthe reasons behind the writer experiencing these states. -- source link
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