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| Adele's Cuneiform Tablet |
Cuneiform is one of the earliest known forms of writing. It originated in Sumer around 3100 B.C. In its first stages, cuneiform writing was based on pictographs, but for functional reasons, they changed to straight lines. As the pictographs changed into symbols made from straight lines, over time they lost their original resemblance to the objects they represented. Numbers were represented by repeated strokes or circles. In order to write in cuneiform, a reed stick or stylus was used to make impressions in clay.
At first every character represented one word, but many words lacked their own symbols. For these, symbols of related objects were used. In the beginning, cuneiform was written from top to bottom. Then they changed into writing from left to right because their arm would smear the written words below. The signs also changed to being turned on their sides. There were 600 signs in the fully developed cuneiform system.
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| Ace's Tablet (from L to R): Fish, Heaven, Water, Sun, Bird, Barley, Bread, Day, Hand, To Walk, Head, Mountain, Man, Ox, "Ace" |
Thank you, Ace, for that wonderful information about cuneiform writing. I have some things to say about pottery! The ancient pottery of Mesopotamia was a lot different than most people think. Some people think that decorations or writing was painted, but most historians know that it was usually etched like this:
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| Adele's Pottery Etched with a Bird Symbol |
Decorating or marking pots with paint may have dated back to around 5,000 B.C. However, when Ace and I were in Ur in 3,000 B.C., they mostly used engravings. Only their ceremonial pots had paintings. Examples of ceremonial pots included their urns. We saw pots engraved with the symbol for crops; for example, the barley symbol might be on a pot that was made to contain that grain. Barley and wheat were grains common to that time and region. Some pots do not even have engravings.
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| Ace's Pottery |
Although the Sumerians had pottery wheels by this time, the pots that we made were coil pots. A coil pot in progress looks like this:
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| Coil Pot Example |
Ace and I had so much fun in the city-state of Ur. Something else we learned about in Ur is that only wealthy boys could go to school. We also got to visit a ziggurat. In Sumer, ziggurats were temples dedicated to the city-state’s most important god or goddess. The one in Ur was the temple of Nanna, the moon deity in Sumerian mythology.
Ace and I had to hurry back home because we saw our Mac battery levels were running low. We did not want to get stuck in the past like Marty McFly. We grabbed our tablets and pottery, and clicked our time portal links. We are looking forward to our next adventure. Meanwhile, do you have any questions about Mesopotamia?
By: Ace and Adele Wells
By: Ace and Adele Wells
Sources Used:
"Mesopotamia." The British Museum. n.d. Web. 27 September 2011
"Cuneiform Writing." LookLex Encyclopedia. n.d. Web. 27 September 2011
(Coil Pot photo courtesy of Google Images.)
"Cuneiform Writing." LookLex Encyclopedia. n.d. Web. 27 September 2011
(Coil Pot photo courtesy of Google Images.)
Excellent story! I wish I could go with you one of these times. I wonder if GoogleTranslate would work from Cuneiform to English.
ReplyDeleteAh ha! Thank you for the mention! I have a lot to discuss with you!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, my wife had worked in the office at Cornell University until recently that dealt with their huge collection of cuneiform tablets, they have zillions! http://cuneiform.library.cornell.edu/
I naturally was priveleged to visit the lab one day. You have already discussed so much about this early form of writing and communication and record keeping, but let me add a little more, and you can go to that link to see other facts. First of all, in general, according to laura Johnson Kelly at Cornell's lab, many of the tablets they have are basically RECEIPTS or records. Something like "14 bushells grain, 3 barrels beer, 2 goats". Really day to day stuff, but gives an excellent picture of people's lives at that time, what they did, what merchants were selling or farmer's had saved or sold. As a potter, I was interested in the second aspect of the lab. The first thing they do is translate the tablet, as I said, the secong thing they do, which interests a potter, is STABILIZE the tablet. Thousands of years ago, only rudimentary firing processes existed, so the original clay tablets may have been fired in something like a Girl Scout fire pit--reaching maybe 600 degrees or more. That is pretty good for preserving them, but not good enough to keep them safer. For example, flower pots, red roof tiles, and typical Mexican earthenware for plates or bowls might be fired to 1800 degrees, A LOT hotter than 600. I fire stoneware, which is even stronger temps and clay, to 2200 degrees. So, the higher clay has been fired, the less brittle it is, the less fragile, and also then water cannot damage the work. SO, my point here, is that thousands of years after the tiles were originally fired, the Cornell lab takes the tiles and fires them again so that they are stronger, to 1000 something, in very small lab kilns. Then they can place them back into storage and not worry about them so much (I need to start another comment now)
part 2--OK, now, as far as my understanding of making pots and coil pots. When I was in college starting to learn clay, it was explained to me the origins of POTS. My professor Stanley explained one theory. People would need to carry water or store things. Baskets were common enough, and the sticky stuff found around river banks was easy to form and paste (clay!). He said some people may have lined baskets with clay, and perhaps one day a basket near a fire pit caught fire itself, and the people noticed that after the basket had burned off, the remaining clay was alot stronger and better able to hold something like water, and therefore the clay forming and firing process was discovered (that was the theory he told us, maybe there are others?) He went further to explain how people would form pots at first, by pinching bits of clay together, but then to go bigger, they began coiling clay as you did. As you form a coil pot, my teacher told us, you turn the pot around and around. He told us that the pottery wheel throwing process was probably developed by people who became very quick at coiling and turning....and then they got a wheel involved to go faster, and faster, so that using a clay lump and spinning wheel was developed. It is definately interesting to me, as it is to you, how early people wanted messages and pictures on pots, to communicate or as part of ceremonial functions.
ReplyDeleteWhat you 2 have done is utterly wonderful, putting this all together, making items to illustrate your point and add to your research. Pottery has always been one thing that has been important for humans to make and use, and is often the main source of clues that archaeologists have about a culture from the past, thank you for exploring and writing and picturing your research!
Very informative, thank you!
ReplyDeleteDid you get to see any of the little round inscribed seals that they used for other purposes (unlike earlier stamps) to inscribe clay tablets with some cuneiform and then some pictures as well?
http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/ancient_texts/cylinder_seals.shtml
They're really small, most of the ones I've seen in museums as small a pinky finger. The scribes and artisans inscribing the words and scenes must have had really steady hands! I wonder if there were kinds of things they didn't use those seals or cuneiform for?
If a wealthy boy went to school, what did he do with his education? Did he have a better job? Life status? Were girls treated poorly? I imagine it took scientists a long time to understand all 600 signs in the cunieform system. (That word isn't rolling off my tongue...)
ReplyDeleteI never knew the coil pot originated with them. Cool. And I like the idea of a deity named Nanna!
ReplyDeleteSo very cool!
ReplyDeleteCuneiform was the cause of a lot of complaining in my house just last week when my 12 year-old son had to translate an assignment for class. I must say, you've handled the topic SO MUCH BETTER! Great job!
ReplyDeleteGreat job you two! I loved your examples of pottery! Did the people in Mesopotamia trade their pottery for other items they needed?
ReplyDeleteArtastic! Even though I can draw and paint, my coil pots were horrible. Well done. Thanks for the info and new respect for clay.
ReplyDelete