Researchers investigating how the first writing arose identified the motifs on preliterate

Origins of world's earliest writing point to symbols on 'seals' used in Mesopotamian trade

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2024-11-06 16:00:05

Researchers investigating how the first writing arose identified the motifs on preliterate "cylinder seals" used in the trade of agricultural products and textiles.

The world's oldest known system of writing was influenced by symbols used for trade — engravings found on cylinders used in the exchange of farming produce and textiles, a new study suggests.

The finding reinforces an idea proposed in earlier research: that cuneiform script — which was developed in early Mesopotamia around 3100 B.C. and is thought to be the earliest writing system — originated in part from accounting methods for tracking the production, storage and transport of such items.

According to the researchers, several symbols engraved on stone "cylinder seals" were developed into signs used in "proto-cuneiform," an early version of the cuneiform script used in southern Mesopotamia, now southern Iraq. The researchers reported their findings in a study published Tuesday (Nov. 5) in the journal Antiquity.

Such cylinder seals were used for millennia throughout Mesopotamia, where they were rolled across clay tablets to print their motifs on them — often to verify a transaction or, later, a letter.

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