Photo: Franck Raux © 2001 GrandPalaisRmn (Musée du Louvre)
Writing is such a common activity that we rarely stop to think that there was a time when it didn’t exist. Now, researchers at the University of Bologna seem to have found a key puzzle piece in the history of the written word, and it all traces back to 6,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts.
A new study published in Antiquity points to ancient cylindrical seals used in an early form of accounting to keep records of the production, storage, and transport of various goods. The symbols in these artifacts from the city of Uruk, in modern-day Iraq, are thought to be a direct predecessor of “proto-cuneiform script,” which later evolved into cuneiform, the oldest known form of written language.
“The close relationship between ancient sealing and the invention of writing in southwest Asia has long been recognized, but the relationship between specific seal images and sign shapes has hardly been explored,” Silvia Ferrara, professor in the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna and lead researcher, said in a statement. “This was our starting question: did seal imagery contribute significantly to the invention of signs in the first writing in the region?”
Since the symbols in these seals spread around modern southern Iraq, researchers suggest their use signals an exchange of thought between parties. Drawing from this, the researchers think there’s a structural link between these seals and the earliest forms of writing in Uruk, an important cultural hub and one of the earliest sites of urbanization in Mesopotamia.
“Our findings demonstrate that the designs engraved on cylinder seals are directly connected to the development of proto-cuneiform in southern Iraq. They also show how the meaning originally associated with these designs was integrated into a writing system,” explained Ferrara.
While it’s not the first time language researchers have tried to draw a connection between these preliterate seals and the early days of writing–and others have found the symbols too vague for the argument to stand–the study seems to have sparked a conversation around how humankind took this crucial step towards more complex communication.
“The conceptual leap from pre-writing symbolism to writing is a significant development in human cognitive technologies,” Ferrara concluded. “The invention of writing marks the transition between prehistory and history, and the findings of this study bridge this divide by illustrating how some late prehistoric images were incorporated into one of the earliest invented writing systems.”
A new study suggests that ancient cylindrical seals found in Mesopotamia may hold the earliest origins of the written word.
Comparisons of proto-cuneiform signs with pre-literate seal elements. Signs are rotated for comparison with iconography. (Image: Silvia Ferrara et al via CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Source: Seals and signs: tracing the origins of writing in ancient South-west Asia
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