It was the end of the Stone Age, and the beginning of the Bronze Age or the Age of Metallurgy and Writing!

The ancient Sumerians believed in education. Record keeping was very important to them. They wanted their sons to learn how to read and write. Their written language began as pictographs, pictures of things that acted as words. Pictographs worked, but they were rather cumbersome. Soon, the clever ancient Sumerians started to use wedge-shaped symbols for objects and ideas instead of pictures. Today, we call this written language of wedge-shaped symbols cuneiform.

We know a great deal about the ancient Sumerian civilization from the written records they left behind in stone and clay. The ancient Sumerians kept excellent records and lists of things. They listed their household goods. They listed their court activity. They listed their sales and purchases. They even kept a list of their kings that was updated from time to time, as new kings came to power.

One of the best things the ancient Sumerians wrote down was a great story called The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest recorded story in the world. It tells about the adventures of a king of Uruk, one of the city-states in ancient Sumer. King Gilgamesh may actually have existed. His name is on the list of Sumerian kings, a list we know about because the ancient Sumerians wrote it down. 

Cuneiform became the written language from as early as 5000 BCE. As the civilization of Sumer started to decline, other civilizations continued to use the Sumerian written symbols. Thanks to the Sumerians, we also know a great deal about the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations of Babylon and of Assyria, civilizations who used the ancient Sumerian system of writing - cuneiform. 

Although cuneiform was used for many thousands of years, and many things have been discovered written in cuneiform, cuneiform is still not easy to read. That is because the shape of cuneiform letters, and the meanings of various cuneiform symbols, changed over time and varied by region. When archaeologists find ancient cuneiform script, they are always excited about it. But, they need time to translate it to discover if they have found a household list of repaired items, or a new poem or story. There is much yet to be discovered about these ancient people as archaeologists continue to translate the ancient written language of Cuneiform. 

Write like a Babylonian: See your name in cuneiform!

Dubsar, the Cuneiform Scribe

Online translator: Cuneiform

Writing/Pictograms/Cuneiform 

Cuneiform Game 

Cuneiform

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