|
|
Writing is the life giving blood of the 20th century. Once, there was no such thing. A
world without writing? One could just shudder at the thought. Where did it come from? Writing
was first a convenience to hold down a memory of business. It was called cuneiform. The word
cuneiform is derived from Latin word cuneus, meaning wedge. Cuneiform is the original style of
writing created by the Sumerians who lived in what is now the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Cuneiform was originally used to make a copy of a business transaction, but then it was realized
that one could place their thoughts down on a clay tablet, and send it to someone in another
village, or even to those not yet born. Cuneiform writing is humanity's greatest step towards
civilization.
The Neolithic people, or the people of the late Stone Age, began to move toward civilization
and sophistication by the development of writing. Cuneiform writing was invented by the
Sumerians in Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. Mesopotamia was situated between the
Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, in modern day Iraq. Mesopotamia means the land between the
rivers. The Neolithic people migrated from Africa and settled in Sumer, part of the Fertile
Crescent. Sumer was located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf along the Fertile Crescent. The
Fertile Crescent spanned the entire length of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and along the east,
and north east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Sumerian boys went to temple schools that
were once Ziggurats. There they were taught by men who had already mastered the art, for the
art of writing was a difficult one to master. Women were not allowed to learn how to write.
Their jobs were in the home, to raise children, and look after the men.
A pictogram or pictograph, was the first form of cuneiform. A pictogram was when the
writer drew a simplified picture of the object he was trying to represent. Expressing thoughts was very limited. To give more scope to communication, writers represented
thoughts in idea picture writing. This is where one object could have many meanings; two or
more objects could have many meanings; two or more objects could be combined to create a new
meaning. This is called an ideogram. Greater scope to communication was still needed to express emotion, concepts, and intangible
thoughts more clearly without confusion or misinterpretation. The writer began to represent
words by a illustration of the picture writing, or a phonograph. This was sophistication of
cuneiform. These pictures were written on tablets. Cuneiform tablets were made from wet clay from the
river banks. After enough clay was collected, it was shaped into blocks. A reed was then
sharpened at one end to aid in the of writing of pictures. The reed was pushed into the wet
clay to form pictures with a set series of lines and curves. Sometimes the bunt end of the reed
was used to create picture words. The teacher in the temple schools, would write on the left
hand side of what seems to be textbooks tablets. The student would then copy the words onto
the right side of the tablet. When completed, the tablet was baked, which made it very
durable. However, very few of these textbook tablets remain. The tablets used by scribes did
not have two messages, but the technique was the same. Archaeologists have dug up thousands
of these tablets.
The earliest tablet found was dated back to c. 5000BC, the beginning of history, the
dawn of civilization, the advancement in social development. The last cuneiform tablet was dated
back to c. 1AD. This is when cuneiform fell to "alphabetic writing systems being developed by
the Phoenicians, Israelites, Greeks and other people of the Mediterranean"(Comptons Interactive
Encyclopedia, Cuneiform Writing).
Cuneiform was created because trade was important to a civilization. It was originally
used as a record of trade. It was merely a convenience and was created almost by accident. It
was soon realized that a man could write out his thoughts and ideas and not forget them. A
child not yet born could read the thoughts of his father who had died in battle months earlier; it
was a gift from the gods.
When a civilization gets to the point where it can concern itself with the development of
the arts, it has reached a certain degree of sophistication. The two main products of cuneiform
were the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hammurabi Code of Law. The Epic of Gilgamesh was
written on 12 clay tablets around 1250 BC. It is about one man's quest for timelessness or
immortality. This heroic poem was of a tyrant Babylonian king who ruled the city of Uruk,
known in the Bible as Erech. According to myth, the gods answered the prayers of the
oppressed city and sent a wild man named Enkidu to challenge Gilgamesh to a wrestling match.
Neither party triumphed as the victor, so they became friends. They journeyed and had many
adventures together. The stories of their bravery and heroism for slaying many dangerous
monsters spread throughout many lands. When they returned to Uruk, the guardian of the city,
Ishtar, proclaimed her love for Gilgamesh. Feeling rejected, Ishtar sent a bull from heaven.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed the bull, and as punishment for Enkidu's participation, the gods,
doom him to die. After his friend's death, Gilgamesh sought out the wise man Utnapishtim, to
learn the secret of immortality. After much hesitation, he revealed the story of the plant that
gives eternal life, and sent Gilgamesh away. Gilgamesh dove into the sea to retrieve the plant,
but lost it in a fight with a sea monster. He returned to Uruk to live out the rest of his days.
Along with the arts, came law, and with law came the Hammurabi Code of Law. The Code
was written on a 7' 3" pillar of basalt stela. It was written around 1800BC and is the first
form of inscribed law. The Law was not found in its original resting place, but rather in a
collector's basement. It was removed from rubble of what used to be an old city. The Law had
over 200 laws and punishments, which was the first to give equal punishments and spared no
one. It tells us what the Mesopotamians valued. Moreover, they believed: in the sacredness of
oath, human life was expendable, slavery was permitted, respect for elders, the value of land and
property was to be held in high regard, the superiority and dominance of men, honour was to be
highly respected, that there would be no tolerance for imperfection, in the looseness of men,
respect for state was meant to be well regarded, and children were valued and desired by all.
Cuneiform created a mass communication. Communication is the key to any civilization.
This is one reason why the early hominid did not thrive like the people of recorded history.
There was no sophisticated linguistic expression, just gestures and signs. They did not write
their ideas down. There was no writing; and thus resulting in no history that is definite. What
was the world like without writing: primitive.