Chalcolithic Period in the Near East
Topic 7
Recording, accounting, and the invention of
writing
Information storage technologies and
“memory tools”
• Writing began in Late Uruk, but did not emerge out of nothing
• Long history of information storage technologies and memory tools
in Near East
• Memory tools and information storage devices – refer to any means
of keeping track of information outside the human mind
– tokens
– stamp seals
– cylinder seals
– bullae
– numerical signs
– writing
Schmandt-Besserat and origins of writing
• Earlier theories had suggested that writing was a rapid, sudden
invention (I. Gelb)
• Schmandt-Besserat has devoted her lifework to arguing otherwise –
that writing has antecedents that extend back to earliest tokens
– Tokens refer to quantities of goods
– Argues that the representations remain the same, but grow in
complexity, from Late Neolithic to Uruk times
– Suggests a direct, linear development from tokens to seals/sealings to
bullae to numerical tablets and then written tablets
• Others have disputed her scheme
– Absence of clear stratigraphic evidence for the development, especially
from bullae to numerical tablets to written tablets
– Unlikely that simple token shapes retained same content over
thousands of years and thousands of kilometers
Recent theories
• Scholars such as Piotr Michalowski suggest that there were multiple,
information-storage devices in use parallel to one another
– He proposes that writing appeared rather suddenly, but in a context of
proliferating recording technologies
• Hans Nissen has taken a similar position and argued that writing
must have been invented to solve problems that could not be solved
by existing technologies of information storage
– Related to the greater complexity of the economic system
– He cites as well the growing differentiation in Late Uruk seals between
(1) schematic seals made quickly with mechanical drills, and (2)
naturalistic seals finished with hand-held engraving tools
– Lots of schematic seals but few sealings; lots of naturalistic sealings but
few seals
Late Uruk seals and sealing: schematic vs.
naturalistic
institutional vs. personal
seals?
Recent theories
• Scholars such as Piotr Michalowski suggest that there were multiple,
information-storage devices in use parallel to one another
– He proposes that writing appeared rather suddenly, but in a context of
proliferating recording technologies
• Hans Nissen has taken a similar position and argued that writing
must have been invented to solve problems that could not be solved
by existing technologies of information storage
– Related to the greater complexity of the economic system
– He cites as well the growing differentiation in Late Uruk seals between
(1) schematic seals made quickly with mechanical drills, and (2)
naturalistic seals finished with hand-held engraving tools
– Lots of schematic seals but few sealings; lots of naturalistic sealings but
few seals
• Writing itself continues to develop
– not a static technology that, once invented, remains the same
Proto-cuneiform (“archaic”) writing: what was it, what
was it used for?
• Approximately 5000 tablets known; vast majority are from Uruk
– From Eanna precinct – in layers of rubbish used to level the area
• Contain approximately 1200 signs
– ideographic, rather than pictographic
Proto-cuneiform (“archaic”) writing: what was it, what
was it used for?
• Approximately 5000 tablets known; vast majority are from Uruk
– From Eanna precinct – in layers of rubbish used to level the area
• Contain approximately 1200 signs
– ideographic, rather than pictographic
• Early writing extremely laconic – impossible to say for sure what
language was behind it
• Early writing an accounting/economic device
– Not used to write literature or history: these first appear c. 2600/2500 BCE
– 85% are economic texts
– 15% are lexical texts
Text formats
Uruk III
(Jemdet
Nasr)
Englund 1998
Text types
• Economic texts
– record quantities of goods moving in and out: note that which way they
move is not always clear
– not much concerned with production but rather with collection and
distribution (movement)
• Lexical lists
– relatively small proportion of the texts (15%): many only from Uruk III
(Jemdet Nasr period)
– thought to be school texts
– simple tablet formats
– lists of things by categories:
• places
• animals (for example, cattle, fish [including fishing gear], birds, pigs]
• trees and wooden objects
• vessels, prepared foods and textiles
• professions list
Lexical lists
Cities list
Vessels list
Englund 1998
What was important? most frequently occurring
signs (other than numbers)
Englund 1998
Numerical systems
• Large number of different
numerical systems for different
purposes
• Most are sexagesimal or
bisexagesimal
• Follow the system we assume was
used with tokens
– no abstract numbers
– counts and quantities tied to
specific kinds of things
Example of a deciphered proto-cuneiform
economic text
Social context of writing
• Probably very small group of people who could read and write:
scribes
– rulers / leaders were probably not able to write
– scribes probably worked for major institutions
• Essentially an “oral society” in which a small proportion of people
were literate
– how was information that was not written down stored and transmitted?
– oral traditions, storytelling: see early examples of Mesopotamian
literature with its frequent repetitions
Example of (later) Sumerian literature
Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld
From the great heaven she set her mind on the great below. From the great
heaven the goddess set her mind on the great below. From the great heaven
Inana set her mind on the great below. My mistress abandoned heaven,
abandoned earth, and descended to the underworld. Inana abandoned heaven,
abandoned earth, and descended to the underworld.
She abandoned the office of en, abandoned the office of lagar, and descended to
the underworld. She abandoned the E-ana in Unug, and descended to the
underworld. She abandoned the E-muc-kalama in Bad-tibira, and descended to
the underworld. …
She took the seven divine powers. She collected the divine powers and grasped
them in her hand. With the good divine powers, she went on her way. She put a
turban, headgear for the open country, on her head. She took a wig for her
forehead. She hung small lapis-lazuli beads around her neck.
http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm
Social context of writing
• Probably very small group of people who could read and write:
scribes
– rulers / leaders were probably not able to write
– scribes probably worked for major institutions
• Essentially an “oral society” in which a small proportion of people
were literate
– how was information that was not written down stored and transmitted?
– oral traditions, storytelling: see early examples of Mesopotamian
literature with its frequent repetitions
• What does it mean not to be able to read and write in a society with
writing?
Decipherment of cuneiform
• Cuneiform inscriptions first (re-)discovered in late 18th century
– No one knew what language(s) were written in this script
– Carsten Niebuhr copied inscriptions from Persepolis and published
them when back in Europe
• German schoolteacher, Georg Grotefend, made first significant
progress in decipherment (in 1802)
• Worked on a trilingual inscription from Persepolis
• He guessed that one of the languages would be Old Persian
– Knew that it was common practice to put the most important inscription
in the middle
• He knew the names of Persian kings from Classical sources
• He guessed that a recurrent set of signs would mean ‘king’
• Also that the inscriptions would contain a similar opening formula to
later Persian monarchs:
– X king, son of Y
– X, great King, King of Kings, Son of Y
History of decipherment (continued)
• Grotefend received little acknowledgment
• Diplomats, travelers and adventurers in early 19th
century brought back to Europe growing numbers of
inscriptions from northern Iraq and Iran
• Henry Rawlinson, in British army in India and then in Iran
– Visited the trilingual inscription on a rock cliff at Bisitun
– Despited great difficulty was able to make a copy
History of decipherment – and jealousy
• Rawlinson worked on decipherment back in Britain
– Like Grotefend, he began with the inscription he assumed (correctly) to
be in Old Persian
– By 1837 able to translate two paragraphs of the Old Persian inscription
• From there, tried to decipher the other two languages (in Elamite
and Babylonian/Akkadian)
– Elamite written syllabically and contained 123 different signs
– The Akkadian inscription used almost 600 signs – some syllabic, some
representing whole words
– Akkadian completely unknown as a language at that time
• In late 1840s, Edward Hincks, an Irish parson, guessed that this
third language might belong to the family of Semitic languages
– He also figured out that many of the signs were syllabic
• Much jealousy between Rawlinson and Hincks
– Rawlinson tried to keep Hincks and others from getting access to
additional materials that might help them in their translation efforts
• Today Rawlinson typically receives the primary credit for
decipherment