Eventually it developed into cuneiform which could show phonetic sounds and meanings of words.
In an earlier lesson (The Fertile Crescent Part 2) we learned about how the Sumerians began to develop their civilization. A major step in that development was the building of cities and then trading between those cities.

At first these transactions were shown with tokens.  For example the sale of four sheep would have been shown by four tokens that signified sheep.  Originally these tokens were made out of stone.  Later on they made them with clay. The tokens were saved and stored to keep records of transactions. It was the ancient form of bookkeeping.

As time passed, the tokens and symbols transformed into pictographs, which made it so the scribes didn’t have to draw four sheep. They could write the symbol for the number 4 next to the pictograph of one sheep, instead.  As time passed they improved their writing – creating more complicated number systems and refining pictographs into what is known as Cuneiform.  Cuneiform comes from the Latin word for wedge – cuneus. The tool scribes used to carve with, was a wedged shape stick called a stylus.

Eventually this ancient writing form was able to communicate most everything, such as names, words and ideas.  Ancient stories such as the Gilgamesh the King (The Gilgamesh Trilogy)
was written as well as laws and edicts.  The oldest and most famous code of laws is known as Hammurabi’s Code.

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