From Pebble to Wedge: The

Evolution of Writing in SW Asia

Based on excerpts of A. Bernard Knapp’s, History and Culture of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt

1.3.III.C.

Key Concept Addressed

Upper Paleolithic (30,000-12,000 yrs. ago) Scratches on bone may have been to record

lunar time

Earliest Record Keeping

Tokens date to as early as the 8th millennium BCE Found from Iran to Khartoum in the Sudan Clay, purposely fire hardened Small: .08-.8” Shapes: spheres, rods, discs, cones, tetrahedrons Each stood for a different commodity or item Many forms are symbolic in nature: unrelated to

shape of item that they represent This symbolic nature of the token system is the

link to writing

The Token System

Used for taking inventory, keeping records of

transactions, bartering, accounting for herds or harvests

This system stayed relatively stable from the 8th-4th millennium BCE

By 3,500 BCE abundance and widespread geographic distribution of tokens in the archaeological record show popular usage all over the Near East and parts of North Africa

Would have transcended language barriers

The Token System

Tokens

3,500 BCE (Uruk Period 4,000-3,100 BCE) Earliest Cities New centralized economic authorities Appearance of new commodities Use of intermediaries in inter-city trade New demands placed on token system New forms begin to appear in 3,500 BCE Up to 250 different types of tokens

Innovations in the Token System

1.Perforations on tokens

2.The Bulla

Two Innovations to Accommodate Trade

by Intermediaries

Used tie tokens together? Bound together for transport? Create a “message” of tokens

from “seller” to “buyer” Like a modern invoice

Perforations

Small, spherical clay envelope C. the size of a baseball Hollow: tokens put inside and bulla sealed Recipient had to break open Eventually began to impress with markings from

tokens on outside over seal Markings were of the number and general

shape of tokens inside These marks are the crucial link between the

Token System and writing

The Bulla

Bullae

Marks on outside of bullae are the crucial link between

a three-dimensional token system and two-dimensional writing

Anyone familiar with tokens could now “read” the bullae It would soon be apparent that the tokens inside were

superfluous since the same information was already on the outside of the bullae

Soon a stylus was used to draw the shape of the tokens, instead of the pressing the tokens themselves into the bullae

The earliest writing tablets resembled the bullae in size shape and even convexity

The Crucial Link

Earliest cuneiform (Sumerian) had over 2,000

signs By end of Early Dynastic period (c. 2350 BCE)

two improvements had been made1. Number of signs reduced to about 6002. Phonetization achieved through the Rebus

Principle

From Pictographic/Logographic to Syllabic Writing

A word or idea is represented by depicting an

object whose name suggests the word or idea it is describing

The Rebus Principal leads to Phonetization Eye Can Sea

Ewe

Rebus Principle

Representation of the sounds that express an

idea, rather than a depiction of the idea itself Necessary to express the full range of sounds

and ideas encountered in spoken language Accomplished by end of Early Dynastic period

Phonetization