MODERN CHILD PUBLIC SCHOOL

ART OF WRITING
IN
MESOPOTAMIA

By Ishika Dalal
XI-C
 Acknowledgement
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my
teacher Renu Siwach as well as our principal who gave me
the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the
topic Art Of Writing in Mesopotamia, which also helped
me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so
many new things I am really thankful to them.

Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends

who helped me a lot in finalizing this project within the
limited time frame.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

 Index
• Mesopotamian Civilization….
• Writing………
• Cuneiform Writing System….
• Importance of writing in Mesopotamia…..
• Development of Writing…
 Mesopotamian Civilization
The present Iraq was known as Mesopotamia. It had witnessed the
conglomeration of several races. In or around 5,000 B.C. a nomadic
people appeared is Mesopotamia. They occupied a portion of land in
Mesopotamia and named it as ‘Sumer’. The term ‘Sumerian’ means “a
man having black head”.
They founded cities like Ur, Nipur, Lagash, Nir and Kish. By 2900 B.C.,
the Sumerians were defeated by Akkadians. The Akkadians carved out
their kingdom in the northern part of Mesopotamia and under Surgon-
I they became powerful. The Amorites defeated the Akkadians.
 Writing
• Nowadays, the fact that you can read and write is
taken for granted. In fact, it's not even seen as a major
accomplishment. It's something that is part and parcel
of life. But a long time ago, this wasn't the case. In
fact, it was so rare that if you could read and write you
could be set for life. Wouldn't it be nice if life were that
easy today? Just learn to read and write and you'll be
golden!
• Let's go over the ancient Mesopotamian writing system
and how it even came into existence in the first place.
 Cuneiform Writing System
• So what was the ancient Mesopotamian writing system? You
may have already heard of it. Today, we call it cuneiform.
This word comes to us from the Latin for cuneus, which
means 'wedge' and signifies the wedge-like shape of the
writing you can see in the picture in this lesson.
• Hundreds of cuneiform symbols were used to represent
words and syllables. The system also had an alphabet so you
could, like we do in English today, spell a word out. However,
the writing system was complex and some parts of it are
ambiguous to this day. In fact, one symbol could represent
everything from a sound or syllable to a concept or object.
• And cuneiform was not a distinct writing system, per se.
There were probably numerous languages that used this
writing system. As a result, many cuneiform inscriptions
remain undeciphered to this day.
 Importance Of Writing in Mesopotamia
Cuneiform is the method of writing developed in the valleys
of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the area that became
known as Mesopotamia. It had the advantages of any form of
written language. It enabled people to keep accurate records.
It enabled government decrees to be published so that law
was fixed and reliable, not dependent on any one individual's
memory or judgement. It enabled many types of knowledge,
such as observations of the stars and planets, histories, and
artistic productions to be preserved and passed to peoples in
distant areas or future generations. Although there have been
some civilizations without a form or writing (the Inca were
one) the use of writing makes organizing government, work
projects, war, and trade much more efficient.
 .
• Cuneiform did have some disadvantages. Since it was not an
alphabetic system, there were a large number of signs—1500
at one point. Such a complex system obviously required a
long period of study to master. For this reason, literacy was
limited to priests or trained government officials. A common
farmer, craftsman, or merchant could not afford the time to
learn to read and write.
• The use of cuneiform began around 3000 BCE and lasted
until the first millennium CE. It was adapted to the needs of
several different languages and cultures, including Sumerian,
Hittite, Assyrian, and Babylonian. Without some form of
writing, it is unlikely that anyone of the city-states in these
valleys would have become well organized enough to grow
into an empire. Cuneiform was eventually replaced by
alphabetic systems.
 Development of Writing
• One no longer had to struggle with the meaning of a
pictograph; one now read a word-concept which more clearly
conveyed the meaning of the writer. The number of characters
used in writing was also reduced from over 1,000 to 600 in
order to simplify and clarify the written word. The best
example of this is given by the historian Paul Kriwaczek who
notes that, in the time of proto-cuneiform:
• All that had been devised thus far was a technique for noting
down things, items and objects, not a writing system. A record
of `Two Sheep Temple God Inanna’ tells us nothing about
whether the sheep are being delivered to, or received from,
the temple, whether they are carcasses, beasts on the hoof, or
anything else about them
Cuneiform developed to the point where it
could be made clear, to use Kriwaczek's
example, whether the sheep were coming or
going to the temple, for what purpose, and
whether they were living or dead. By
the time of the priestess-poet Enheduanna
 (2285-2250 BCE), who wrote her famous
hymns to Inanna in the Sumerian city of Ur,
cuneiform was sophisticated enough to
convey emotional states such as love and
adoration, betrayal and fear, longing and
hope, as well as the precise reasons behind
the writer experiencing such states
 How did the art of writing developed in
Mesopotamia
The signs fixed for writing spoken sounds
are called a script. Mesopotamians too had
their own scripts .They began to write when
society needed to keep records transactions,
because in city life, transactions occurred at
different times and involved many people
and a variety of goods.
Around 3200 BCE, the first Mesopotamians
tablets were written . These tablets
contained picture-like signs and numbers.
A CLIP ON
MESOPOTAMIA
N CIVILIZATION
^_^ 
MESOPOTAMIA
ON MAP
S.N YEAR EVENT
1. C.7000-6000 BCE Beginning of agriculture in the northern Mesopotamian plains.
2. C. 5000 BCE Earliest temples in southern Mesopotamia built.

MESOPOTAMIA
3. C. 3200 BCE First writing in Mesopotamia.

OF ANCIENT
4. C. 3000 BCE Uruk develops into a huge city, increasing use of bronze tools.

TIMELINE
5. C. 2700-2500 BCE Early Kings, including possibly the, legendary ruler Gilgamesh.
6. C. 2600 BCE Development of the cuneiform script.
7. C. 2400 BCE Replacement of the Sumerian by Akkadian
8. C. 2370 BCE Sargon , King of Akkad
9. C. 2000 BCE Spread of cuneiform writing to Syria, Turkey and Egypt . Mari and
Babylon emerged as important Urban Centers.
10. C. 1800 BCE Mathematical texts composed ;Sumerian no longer spoken.
11. C. 1100 BCE Establishment of the Assyrian Kingdom
12. C. 1000 BCE Use of Iron
13. C. .720-610 BCE Assyrian empire
14. C. 668-627 BCE Rule of Assurbanipal
15. C. 331 BCE Alexander conquers Babylon
16. C. Ist Century CE Akkadian and cuneiform Babylon