How seals became the first writing

How seals became the first writing

These Mesopotamian clay tablets bear symbols of the proto-cuneiform script, the preforms of which also appear as motifs on seal cylinders. © CDLI – Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative

The proto-cuneiform script of ancient Mesopotamia, which was created around 5,600 years ago, is considered one of the oldest scripts in the world. But how did it come about? Archaeologists may have found a possible answer on seal cylinders from Uruk. Accordingly, some of the still figurative motifs of these clay seals can be found in the stylized symbols of the proto-cuneiform script and are there in a similar context, as the team reports. The writing could therefore have developed from such labels for commercial goods, as the team reports.

The invention of writing was a milestone in human history; it enabled early civilizations such as the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians and the Indus Culture to make the leap to advanced civilization. The symbolic signs made communication more efficient, made it possible to write down events and literature, and helped mark trade goods or other objects.

Seal motifs as early forms of cuneiform writing?

The oldest writing in the world probably developed in Mesopotamia. Finds in Uruk and other early Mesopotamian cities show that people there were already using simple, standardized symbols for numbers and objects more than 5,600 years ago, which they embossed into the wet clay of seals, spherical markers and tablets. “This proto-cuneiform script can be found on clay tablets in Uruk around 3350 to 3000 BC,” report Kathryn Kelley from the University of Bologna and her colleagues. “At that time there was already a complex system of hundreds of iconographic symbols, many of which have not yet been deciphered.”

The shape of this proto-cuneiform script suggests that it once developed from pictorial, figurative representations such as those found on the seal cylinders of ancient Mesopotamia. These seals with relief-like motifs were unrolled on wet clay, leaving behind a band with characteristic images. It was therefore reasonable to assume that these seals, which were often used to mark ownership or trade goods, were precursors to writing, from which increasingly abstract symbols developed over time. But concrete evidence of this transition has so far been missing. “The close relationship between seals and the invention of writing in Southwest Asia was recognized early on. However, it was unclear how specific seal images were related to the proto-cuneiform symbols,” says senior author Silvia Ferrara from the University of Bologna.

Motif comparison
Examples of seal motifs and their proto-cuneiform equivalents. © CDLI – Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative

Similarities of motif and symbol

The reason: Many cuneiform characters have not yet been deciphered and it is therefore unclear what they are supposed to represent. This also makes it difficult to assign them to seal motifs that match the content. Kelley and her colleagues therefore once again attempted to compare the approximately 800 known proto-cuneiform symbols with seal motifs from ancient Uruk, thereby increasingly taking into account the context of the seals and proto-cuneiform symbols. “We concentrated on the seal motifs that existed before writing was invented,” explain the archaeologists. With this comparison, the team was actually able to find some similarities.

“We identified a number of seal motifs from the context of textile trade and ceramic production, from which corresponding proto-cuneiform symbols later emerged,” reports Kelley. A seal motif shows a vessel with a net structure, which could be the predecessor of the cuneiform symbol for vessels with oils. “A similarly convincing case for the conversion of prescriptive administrative symbols into proto-cuneiform can be found in another pair of motifs,” the team writes. This is a seal depiction of a cloth with fringes, which later became the cuneiform symbol for “linen”. A fan-like object that often appears on the seals together with images of cattle is also found stylized in the proto-cuneiform script together with the written symbols for cattle.

Testimony of the transition to writing

According to archaeologists, these similarities demonstrate a direct connection between the seal cylinder system and the invention of writing. “Our finds demonstrate that the motifs engraved on the seal cylinders are directly linked to the development of proto-cuneiform writing in southern Iraq,” says Ferrara. “The conceptual leap from prescriptive symbolism to writing is a significant development in humanity’s cognitive technologies. The invention of writing marks the transition between prehistory and history – and the results of our study illustrate how this transition took place.” At the same time, the parallels between seal motifs and proto-cuneiform writing could also help to decipher some of the symbols that have not yet been deciphered.

Source: Università di Bologna; Specialist article: Antiquity, doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.165

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