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The Proto-Cuneiform script was used in
Beginning around the 9th millennium BC a token based system came into use in various parts of the ancient Near East. These evolved into marked tokens and later marked envelopes, often called clay bullae. It is usually assumed that these were the basis for the development of Proto-Cuneiform.
Proto-Cuneiform emerged in the Uruk IV period, circa 3300 BC and continued though the Uruk III times. The script slowly evolved over time with signs changing and merging. It was initially used in Uruk, later spreading to a few additional sites like
About 170 similar tablets from Uruk V (circa 3500 BC) Susa and a few other sites in Iran like
Different products use different measurement systems and this can change with the context. In a single tablet the (Bisexagesimal System B) could be used for grain rations, (ŠE system Š) could be used for barley, and (ŠE system Š") be used for emmer wheat.
The largest group of proto-cuneiform texts (about 2000 from the Uruk IV period and about 3600 from the Uruk III period) are accounts ie "economic records". They involve a variety of items including people, livestock, and grain. Unfortunately there are often multiple ways to do things. For example people can be listed two different ways 1) By gender and age (adult, minor, baby) or 2) without gender and in one of a number of age groups (0-1, 3-10 etc).
Another large category (around a dozen in Uruk IV and about 750 for Uruk III)) are called "lexical lists" started appearing in Uruk IV but became much more common in Uruk III times. These are list of all metals or a list of all tools or all cities etc. The genre persisted into Early Dynastic and Old Babylonian times.Ross, Jennifer C.. "Lost: The Missing Lexical Lists of the Archaic Period". Strings and Threads: A Celebration of the Work of Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, edited by Wolfgang Heimpel and Gabriella Szabo, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 231-242, 2022
dam Falkenstein, "Archaische Texte aus Uruk", Berlin und Leipzig: Deutsche Forschungsgemein-schaft, Kommissionsverlag Otto Harrassowitz. 1936. *ATU 2
. W. Green und Hans J. Nissen, unter Mitarbeit von Peter Damerow und Robert K. Englund, "Zeichenliste der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk", Berlin 1987. *ATU 3. Robert K. Englund und Hans J. Nissen unter Mitarbeit von Peter Damerow, "Die Lexikalischen Listen der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk", Berlin 1993. *ATU 4. Robert K. Englund und Hans J. Nissen, "Katalog der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk" *ATU 5. Robert K. Englund unter Mitarbeit von R. M. Boehmer, "Archaic Administrative Texts from Uruk: The Early Campaigns", Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag 1994 *ATU 6. Robert K. Englund und Hans J. Nissen unter Mitarbeit von R. M. Boehmer, "Archaische Verwaltungstexte aus Uruk: Vorderasiatisches Museum II", Berlin 2005. *ATU 7. Robert K. Englund und Hans J. Nissen unter Mitarbeit von R. M. Boehmer, "Archaische Verwaltungstexte aus Uruk: Die Heidelberger Sammlung", Berlin 2001. And from other sites (MSVO) *MSVO 1. Robert K. Englund, Jean-Pierre Grégoire, and Roger J. Matthews, The Proto-Cuneiform Texts from Jemdet Nasr I: Copies, Transliterations and Glossary. Materialien zu den frühen Schriftzeugnissen des Vorderen Orients Bd. 1. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1991 *MSVO 2. Matthews, R. J. Cities, Seals and Writing: Archaic Seal Impressions from Jemdet Nasr and Ur. Berlin: Gebr. Mann 1993 *MSVO 3. Damerow, P. & Englund, R. K. forthcoming. The Proto-Cuneiform Texts from the Erlenmeyer Collection. Berlin. *MSVO 4. Robert K. Englund and Roger J. Matthews, Proto-Cuneiform Textsfrom Diverse Collections. Materialien zu den frühen Schriftzeugnissen des Vorderen Orients Bd. 4. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1996
File:Jemdet Nasr tablet AN1926.583.jpg, Jemdet Nasr tablet AN1926.583
File:Jemdet Nasr tablet AN1926.602.jpg, Jemdet Nasr tablet AN1926.602
File:Jemdet Nasr tablet AN1926.606.jpg, Jemdet Nasr tablet AN1926.606
File:Jemdet Nasr tablet AN1926.564.jpg, Jemdet Nasr tablet AN1926.564
File:P1150884 Louvre Uruk III tablette écriture précunéiforme AO19936 rwk.jpg, Louvre Uruk III tablette écriture précunéiforme AO19936
File:Precuneiforme tablet-AO 8856-IMG 9155-gradient.jpg, Precuneiforme tablet-AO 8856-IMG 9155-gradient
File:Tablette precuneiforme AO 2753.jpg, Tablette precuneiforme AO 2753
File:Clay Tablet - Louvre - AO29562.jpg, Clay Tablet - Louvre - AO29562
File:Clay Tablet - Louvre - AO29560.jpg, Clay Tablet - Louvre - AO29560
File:Five day ration list - Jemdet Nasr.jpg, Five day ration list - Jemdet Nasr
File:Numerical and proto cuneiforms tablets - Oriental Institute.jpg, Numerical and proto cuneiforms tablets - Oriental Institute
File:Clay tablet, lexical text, listing 58 different terms for pig. From Uruk, Iraq. 3200 BCE. Pergamon Museum.jpg, Clay tablet, lexical text, listing 58 different terms for pig. From Uruk, Iraq. 3200 BCE. Pergamon Museum
File:Uruk period administrative tablet.jpg, Uruk period administrative tablet
File:Tontäfelchen Mesopotamien 3200vChr 2.jpg, Tontäfelchen Mesopotamien 3200vChr 2
File:Tablette numerale Sialk IV.jpg, Tablette numerale Sialk IV
Full list of Proto-Cuneiform Signs from CDLIProto-Cuneiform article at CDLITablet from the Erlenmeyer Collection purchased by the British MuseumUruk IV tablet - photos and transliterations - CDLIUruk III tablets - pictures and transliterations - CDLI
orn, Logan, and Kathryn Kelley. "A Quantitative Analysis of Proto-Cuneiform Sign Use in Archaic Tribute." Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin, 2021 *Charvát, Petr, "On People, Signs and States – Spotlights on Sumerian Society, c. 3500–2500 B.C.", Prague: The Oriental Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 1998 * Charvát, Petr. "Cherchez la femme: The SAL Sign in Proto-Cuneiform Writing". La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancien: réalités, symbolismes et images: Proceedings of the 55e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Paris, edited by Lionel Marti, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 169-182, 2021 * Diaco, Maddalena. "The Signs For Buildings in the Proto-Cuneiform." Rivista di Preistoria e Protostoria delle Civiltà Antiche Review of prehistory and protohistory of ancient civilizations 43, pp. 35-52, 2020
nglund, Robert K. "Proto-cuneiform account-books and journals." Creating Economic Order: Recordkeeping, Standardization and the Development of Accounting in the Ancient Near East , Michael Hudson and Cornelia Wunsch ds. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL Press, pp. 23-46, 2004
nglund, Robert K. "Late Uruk period cattle and dairy products: Evidence from proto-cuneiform sources." Bulletin of Sumerian Agriculture 8.2, pp. 33-48, 1995
nglund, Robert K., "The Smell of the Cage", in Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2009:4, 2009 *Englund, Robert K, "Late Uruk Pigs and Other Herded Animals", in: U. Finkbeiner, R. Dittmann and H. Hauptmann, eds., Festschrift Boehmer Mainz pp. 121-133 , 1995 * Glassner, J-J. "Proto-Cuneiform Texts from Diverse Collections." The Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.3, pp. 547-547, 1999 * Kelley, Kathryn. Gender, age, and labour organization in the earliest texts from Mesopotamia and Iran (c. 3300-2900 BC). Diss. University of Oxford, 2018. * Langdon, Stephen Herbert, "Pictographic Inscriptions from Jemdet Nasr excavated by the Oxford and Field Museum Expedition", Oxford editions of cuneiform texts 7, Oxford University Press, 1928
issen, Hans-Jörg. "Uruk: Early Administration Practices and the Development of Proto-Cuneiform Writing." Archéo-Nil 26.1, pp. 33-48, 2016 * Nissen, HansJörg; Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K., "Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East.", Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993 *Wagensonner, Klaus. "Early Lexical Lists and Their Impact on Economic Records: An Attempt of Correlation Between Two Seemingly Different Kinds of Data-Sets". Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Würzburg 20–25 Jul, edited by Gernot Wilhelm, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 805-818, 2022 Obsolete writing systems Cuneiform Sumerian language
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
from roughly 3300 BC to 2900 BC. It arose from the token based system used in the region for the preceding millennia and was replaced by the development of early Cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
script in the Early Dynastic I period. While the underlying language of Cuneiform is definitively Sumerian, the language base for Proto-Cuneiform is as yet uncertain.
History
Beginning around the 9th millennium BC a token based system came into use in various parts of the ancient Near East. These evolved into marked tokens and later marked envelopes, often called clay bullae. It is usually assumed that these were the basis for the development of Proto-Cuneiform.
Proto-Cuneiform emerged in the Uruk IV period, circa 3300 BC and continued though the Uruk III times. The script slowly evolved over time with signs changing and merging. It was initially used in Uruk, later spreading to a few additional sites like Jemdet Nasr
Jemdet Nasr ( ar, جمدة نصر) is a tell or settlement mound in Babil Governorate (Iraq) that is best known as the eponymous type site for the Jemdet Nasr period (3100–2900 BC), and was one of the oldest Sumerian cities. The site was first ...
.
Finally, in the Early Dynastic I (c. 2900 BC) period the standard Cuneiform script, in the Sumerian language, emerged though only about 400 tablets have yet been recovered from this period, mainly from Ur with a few from Uruk
Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
.
Language
There is a longstanding debate in the academic community on when Sumerians came to Mesopotamia. This is partly driven by various linguistic arguments but also because a number of fundamental changes occurred in Mesopotamia, such as the plano-convex brick, at the same time as the Sumerian language definitively appeared in ED I. There are no clear clues in Proto-Cuneiform which has not prevented much speculation about the underlying language. Different languages have been proposed though often Sumerian is assumed.Corpus
About 170 similar tablets from Uruk V (circa 3500 BC) Susa and a few other sites in Iran like Tepe Sialk
Tepe Sialk ( fa, تپه سیلک) is a large ancient archeological site (a ''tepe'', "hill, tell (archaeology), tell") in a suburb of the city of Kashan, Isfahan Province, in central Iran, close to Fin Garden. The culture that inhabited this area ...
are considered as pre-proto-Elamite though with similarities to Proto-Cuneiform. Sign lists and transliterations are less clear for this category.
The vast majority of Proto-Cuneiform texts have been found at Uruk, though in secondary contexts. Many had been used as fill for the foundation in the Eanna temple complex. The findspots and analysis of sealing has led to suggestions that the tablets originated elsewhere and ended up at Uruk, where they were discarded.
A smaller number of tablets were found in Jemdet Nasr, Khafajah
Khafajah or Khafaje (Arabic: خفاجة; ancient Tutub, Arabic: توتوب) is an archaeological site in Diyala Province (Iraq). It was part of the city-state of Eshnunna. The site lies east of Baghdad and southwest of Eshnunna.
History of arch ...
and Tell Uqair
Tell Uqair (Tell Uquair, Tell Aqair) is a tell or settlement mound northeast of Babylon and about south of Baghdad in modern Babil Governorate, Iraq.
History of archaeological research
The site of Tell Uqair was excavated during World War II, i ...
. They tend to be less fragmentary and are sometimes found in stratified contexts. Some tablets have also made their way into various private and public collections. For example inn 1988 82 complete well preserved tablets from the Swiss Erlenmeyer Collection in Basel were auctioned off with most ending up in public collections.
State of decipherment
Currently there are about 2000 known Proto-Cuneiform signs of which about 350 are numerical, 1100 are individual ideographic and 600 are complex (combination of 2 or more individual signs) signs.Numbers
The underlying basis of the proto-cuneiform, like the later cuneiform, is sexagesimal (base 60). Earlier researchers believed that this system rose out of an earlier decimal (base 10) substratum but that idea has now lost currency.
Different products use different measurement systems and this can change with the context. In a single tablet the (Bisexagesimal System B) could be used for grain rations, (ŠE system Š) could be used for barley, and (ŠE system Š") be used for emmer wheat.
Text
The largest group of proto-cuneiform texts (about 2000 from the Uruk IV period and about 3600 from the Uruk III period) are accounts ie "economic records". They involve a variety of items including people, livestock, and grain. Unfortunately there are often multiple ways to do things. For example people can be listed two different ways 1) By gender and age (adult, minor, baby) or 2) without gender and in one of a number of age groups (0-1, 3-10 etc).
Another large category (around a dozen in Uruk IV and about 750 for Uruk III)) are called "lexical lists" started appearing in Uruk IV but became much more common in Uruk III times. These are list of all metals or a list of all tools or all cities etc. The genre persisted into Early Dynastic and Old Babylonian times.Ross, Jennifer C.. "Lost: The Missing Lexical Lists of the Archaic Period". Strings and Threads: A Celebration of the Work of Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, edited by Wolfgang Heimpel and Gabriella Szabo, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 231-242, 2022
Publication
The proto-cuneiform texts from Uruk were published in a series of books (ATU) *ATU 1dam Falkenstein, "Archaische Texte aus Uruk", Berlin und Leipzig: Deutsche Forschungsgemein-schaft, Kommissionsverlag Otto Harrassowitz. 1936. *ATU 2
. W. Green und Hans J. Nissen, unter Mitarbeit von Peter Damerow und Robert K. Englund, "Zeichenliste der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk", Berlin 1987. *ATU 3. Robert K. Englund und Hans J. Nissen unter Mitarbeit von Peter Damerow, "Die Lexikalischen Listen der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk", Berlin 1993. *ATU 4. Robert K. Englund und Hans J. Nissen, "Katalog der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk" *ATU 5. Robert K. Englund unter Mitarbeit von R. M. Boehmer, "Archaic Administrative Texts from Uruk: The Early Campaigns", Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag 1994 *ATU 6. Robert K. Englund und Hans J. Nissen unter Mitarbeit von R. M. Boehmer, "Archaische Verwaltungstexte aus Uruk: Vorderasiatisches Museum II", Berlin 2005. *ATU 7. Robert K. Englund und Hans J. Nissen unter Mitarbeit von R. M. Boehmer, "Archaische Verwaltungstexte aus Uruk: Die Heidelberger Sammlung", Berlin 2001. And from other sites (MSVO) *MSVO 1. Robert K. Englund, Jean-Pierre Grégoire, and Roger J. Matthews, The Proto-Cuneiform Texts from Jemdet Nasr I: Copies, Transliterations and Glossary. Materialien zu den frühen Schriftzeugnissen des Vorderen Orients Bd. 1. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1991 *MSVO 2. Matthews, R. J. Cities, Seals and Writing: Archaic Seal Impressions from Jemdet Nasr and Ur. Berlin: Gebr. Mann 1993 *MSVO 3. Damerow, P. & Englund, R. K. forthcoming. The Proto-Cuneiform Texts from the Erlenmeyer Collection. Berlin. *MSVO 4. Robert K. Englund and Roger J. Matthews, Proto-Cuneiform Textsfrom Diverse Collections. Materialien zu den frühen Schriftzeugnissen des Vorderen Orients Bd. 4. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1996
Gallery
See also
*Proto-Elamite
The Proto-Elamite period, also known as Susa III, is a chronological era in the ancient history of the area of Elam, dating from . In archaeological terms this corresponds to the late Banesh period. Proto-Elamite sites are recognized as the oldest ...
*Blau Monuments
The Blau Monuments are a pair of inscribed stone objects from Mesopotamia now in the British Museum. They are commonly thought to be a form of ancient kudurru.I. J. Gelb, P. Steinkeller, and R. M. Whiting Jr, "OIP 104. Earliest Land Tenure System ...
References
{{ReflistExternal links
Full list of Proto-Cuneiform Signs from CDLI
Further reading
orn, Logan, and Kathryn Kelley. "A Quantitative Analysis of Proto-Cuneiform Sign Use in Archaic Tribute." Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin, 2021 *Charvát, Petr, "On People, Signs and States – Spotlights on Sumerian Society, c. 3500–2500 B.C.", Prague: The Oriental Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 1998 * Charvát, Petr. "Cherchez la femme: The SAL Sign in Proto-Cuneiform Writing". La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancien: réalités, symbolismes et images: Proceedings of the 55e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Paris, edited by Lionel Marti, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 169-182, 2021 * Diaco, Maddalena. "The Signs For Buildings in the Proto-Cuneiform." Rivista di Preistoria e Protostoria delle Civiltà Antiche Review of prehistory and protohistory of ancient civilizations 43, pp. 35-52, 2020
nglund, Robert K. "Proto-cuneiform account-books and journals." Creating Economic Order: Recordkeeping, Standardization and the Development of Accounting in the Ancient Near East , Michael Hudson and Cornelia Wunsch ds. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL Press, pp. 23-46, 2004
nglund, Robert K. "Late Uruk period cattle and dairy products: Evidence from proto-cuneiform sources." Bulletin of Sumerian Agriculture 8.2, pp. 33-48, 1995
nglund, Robert K., "The Smell of the Cage", in Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2009:4, 2009 *Englund, Robert K, "Late Uruk Pigs and Other Herded Animals", in: U. Finkbeiner, R. Dittmann and H. Hauptmann, eds., Festschrift Boehmer Mainz pp. 121-133 , 1995 * Glassner, J-J. "Proto-Cuneiform Texts from Diverse Collections." The Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.3, pp. 547-547, 1999 * Kelley, Kathryn. Gender, age, and labour organization in the earliest texts from Mesopotamia and Iran (c. 3300-2900 BC). Diss. University of Oxford, 2018. * Langdon, Stephen Herbert, "Pictographic Inscriptions from Jemdet Nasr excavated by the Oxford and Field Museum Expedition", Oxford editions of cuneiform texts 7, Oxford University Press, 1928
issen, Hans-Jörg. "Uruk: Early Administration Practices and the Development of Proto-Cuneiform Writing." Archéo-Nil 26.1, pp. 33-48, 2016 * Nissen, HansJörg; Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K., "Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East.", Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993 *Wagensonner, Klaus. "Early Lexical Lists and Their Impact on Economic Records: An Attempt of Correlation Between Two Seemingly Different Kinds of Data-Sets". Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 54th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Würzburg 20–25 Jul, edited by Gernot Wilhelm, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 805-818, 2022 Obsolete writing systems Cuneiform Sumerian language