Learning Family Learns about Cuneiform

How would you write if paper and pencil hadn't yet been invented? What if letter haven't even been invented?

The oldest known writing was found in mesopotamia, and it is just over 6,000 years old. Writing means using symbols to represent language. It can be either pictures or letters.

Cuneiform is one of the oldest forms of writing, used mainly by the Akkadians. Archaeolgists think that it was a simplified form of picture writing at first, and then kept changing to make it easier.

This picture is of an Akkaidian document from about 2250bce. It is in the British Museum.

Much of the oldest writing is about money. How much somebody owns, or owes someone else. But there are a lot of other interesting things too. Like the Laws of Hammurabi, or the story of the Epic of Gilgamesh. These are both very old writings written in clay tablets or carved in stone in Cuneiform.

Learn More! Find books about Cuneiform at Amazon.com

How was writing invented in the first place?

[ Guide ]  

Nobody knows exactly what made people invent writing, or how it came about. Duh, there wasn't any writing yet to record it! But most scholars think it was to help people manage money.

We decided to make up our own story about the origins of writing, sort of making up our own legend. Click the title to the right to read our story.

A Tale for the Birds
How Ahk-Uk invented writing
Read this original Learning Family Legend

We made our own cuneiform tablets

[ Guide ]  

Amanda's Cuneiform notes

[ Guide | Next >  

Cuneiform was one of the first written languages. It is very interesting. Instead of paper and pencils, they used soft clay and a stick called a stylus. We tried to make some Cuneiform tablets, and it was hard to make the characters. Maybe that's why not many people wrote in Cuneiform back then.

Harrison's Cuneiform report

[ Guide | Next > 

We made our own Cuneiform tablets and practiced writing our names. I wrote the word "cuneiform" too. Stylus' are hard to use at first. Cuneiform evolved from picture-writing.

Does Cuneiform look like Dinotopian, the dinosaur alphabet of James Gurney's mythical world of Dinotopia? Check out this picture of the Dinotopian alphabet and see for yourself.

[ Guide | Next > 

[ Guide | Next > 

Links

[ Guide | Next > 

Resources

Check these out from your local library, or buy them here. When you buy books here, you get the same great Amazon.com price, and help keep these pages going.

 [ Guide | Next >