Writing Tradition of Mesopotamia

The emergence of the writing tradition of Mesopotamia dates back to 3500 BCE as the very first writing involving representative images of objects and animals. The pictographs provided only a means to depict nouns, and there was a need for a better way of writing. The development of writing helped develop a form that was devoid of representational images and capable of conveying abstract concepts.

The earliest system of writing involved the use of wedge-like symbols that we know as cuneiforms. Cuneiform writers were skilled scribes who used a reed stylus to communicate numbers, names, and abstract concepts by writing. Cuneiform was instrumental in writing epics, enabling kings to rule, and script legal systems.

Development of writing

Thanks to the writing tradition of Mesopotamia, historians can access a huge treasure-trove of history, traditions, epics like the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the famous Hammurabi’s Code. Writing is a representation of the sounds that we speak. Writing is vital for the development of urban life, which involves a variety of transactions, important communications, and records.

It is evident in the first tablet, which offers an interesting insight into the writing tradition of Mesopotamia. The tablets represent thousands of lists as pictures and numbers. One can see lists of oxen, bread loaves, and fish that were transported into the temple city of Uruk.

There was no paper to write on, and Mesopotamians used clay as a medium. Only a tablet of wet clay was useful to write on since dry clay would break into pieces.  The writing tradition of Mesopotamia started developing as people could write on moist tablets with a sharp obliquely cut reed.

The writing became almost permanent after the sun-baked tablets dried. Moreover, a tablet could not be written on after it dried. A myriad of tablets had to be used for writing a large number of transactions. The letters started taking the shape of cuneiform after 2600 BCE. It is the same period that witnessed the development of language.

Sumerian language and cuneiform writing played a significant role in the overall development of Mesopotamian writing tradition as it was increasingly adopted to write orders, deeds of sale, and also to make dictionaries. The use of cuneiform writing continued even after the replacement of Sumerian language by Akkadian language sometime during 2400 BCE. The long spell of cuneiform writing covers over 2000 years.

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The system of writing

The system of writing on moist clay was extremely complex and painstaking. The scribe had to learn a huge gamut of the wedge-like symbols. This followed writing hundreds of syllables as the cuneiform writing did not include single consonants or vowels to simplify writing.

The writing was to be accomplished before the tablet dried up. We can conclude that the Mesopotamian system of writing was a combination of intellect, skill, and art. The cuneiform system of writing was able to sustain through thousands of years by outliving the Sumerian language.

Literacy

Because of the complexity of language and the intricacies of writing on wet tablets by remembering a huge assortment of wedge-like symbols, literacy was very low in Mesopotamia. Even most kings could not read, and if a king was literate, he made sure that his exceptional reading ability was proudly recorded.

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The uses of writing

The writing tradition of Mesopotamia helped bridge city life and trade as most transactions in urban Mesopotamia were recorded on clay tablets by hard-working and intelligent scribes. Kings used tablets to send communications to other kings from neighbourhood kingdoms to show their superiority.

Uses of writing included tasks such as maintaining the records of goods like sheep, agricultural produce, stones, leather, pots, and so forth. The writing was a means of communicating across faraway places as the messengers often mixed up the spoken messages.

Legacy of writing

Records of written texts can serve as the foundation for the upcoming generations of scholars to read and develop the pieces of knowledge. The world is obliged to the Mesopotamian legacy of writing that includes mathematics, scientific information and scholarly traditions.

Mesopotamians kept records of solar and lunar eclipses. These records included details such as the day, month, and year. What’s more, we can also refer to the ancient Mesopotamian records of constellations, and stars.

The writing tradition of Mesopotamia can throw light on the vast knowledge of the people. They knew that the revolution of the sun and moon is responsible for the division of a year into twelve months. We must thank Mesopotamians for time divisions like 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day.

The tablets that depict numbers, tables, and complex mathematical calculations date back to 1800 BCE. Children of Mesopotamian schools solved problems like finding out the volume of water in a field.

The transfer of such valuable knowledge would never have been possible in the absence of the writing tradition of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia boasted of an impressive tradition of schooling. Students learned about writing on tablets. They were groomed to become scholars who were responsible for building upon the past achievements of their predecessors.

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Conclusion

The invention of writing methods by Mesopotamians involved a cuneiform system of writing symbols that could represent syllables and words. The uses of writing in Mesopotamia enabled people to live in cities and facilitated day-to-day transactions. The writing tradition of Mesopotamia contributed significantly to the Urbanisation ,Cultural development, Academic development, Scientific achievements, Literary development. The writing objectives transformed over time from accounting to the recording of astronomical events and encouraged the creation of literature. The tablets helped the next generations improve their understanding of past events and helped them develop the knowledge further.