Cuneiform: The World’s First Writing System

I. Pictograph

A. Definition: A picture that stands for a word or idea; picture writing.

B. Why did the Sumerians invent writing?

1. Merchants and traders needed a way to keep track of what they bought and sold.

2. One of the first pictographs was for the grain, barley.

What is the relationship between the way our word “barley” looks and barley itself?

How do we know that the symbols which make up the word represent grain?

Barley

II. Cuneiform

A. Definition: Wedge-shaped characters made with a reed stylus.

B. The Sumerians used a sharpened reed, called a stylus, to draw pictures on clay.

C. Around 2500 B.C., writers had simplified their symbols. They no longer looked like pictures and were used to represent sounds.

D. Cuneiform consisted of 600 symbols.E. People could now easily express themselves through

writing. They began keeping records of: • wars and treaties• epic stories and poems (Story of Gilgamesh)• astronomy

F. A new job was created called a scribe- A professional writer or record-keeper whose job was to copy documents and manuscripts.