Who were the earliest cuneiform users?

Around 3000 BC, the Bronze Age Sumerians kept accounts in the form of clay tablets**. Gradually, these symbols evolved into ideograms, and those that could not be described were expressed in arbitrary ways. At first, this kind of writing was picture writing.

Gradually, this pictorial script gradually developed into Sumerian ideograms, combining one or several symbols to express new meanings. Most of the cuneiform scripts found were written on clay tablets, with a few on stone, metal, or wax tablets. Scribes used sharp reed rods or sticks to carve on soft clay tablets, which became hard and not easily deformed after drying or baking.

Because they are mostly depicted on clay tablets, the lines are straight and wedge-shaped.

Cuneiform was used by many ancient civilizations to write their language, but these languages did not necessarily belong to the same related language family. For example, the Hittites and the Persian Empire also used cuneiform, but these two languages were Indo-European languages that had nothing to do with Sumerian. Additionally, while the Akkadians also used cuneiform as a writing instrument, there are many differences between the Akkadians and the Sumerians.

With the development of civilization, hieroglyphs gradually unified and fixed, from changeable hieroglyphs to syllabic symbols. For 2,000 years, cuneiform was the only writing system in Mesopotamia.

Cuneiform writing is mainly found in Western and Southwest Asia. During the reigns of Babylon and Assyria, cuneiform was developed even more, the vocabulary was richer and more complete, and the calligraphy was more elaborate and beautiful. As the culture spread, other ethnic groups in the Liangjiang Valley also adopted the language.

The cuneiform script invented by the Sumerians has become a universal writing system for national communication at that time. Cuneiform was also used in diplomatic correspondence or treaties between Egypt and the countries of the two river basins. As a result of the development of commerce, the Persians on the Iranian plateau improved the cuneiform script of Mesopotamia and gradually transformed it into a high-alphabet script.

Cuneiform has promoted the exchange of people in a certain region, and promoted the emergence of nations and the exchange and inheritance of civilizations. As one of the earliest human scripts, cuneiform has its special significance. It is not only a representative of the civilization of the two rivers, but also one of the symbols of the existence of the civilization of the two rivers. It is of great significance to both history and civilization.

Sumerians. They were the first to use cuneiform and would use the ** of these tablets to record accounts, which later evolved into symbols.

The Sumerians, this kind of people lived before 3000 AD, these people used this method to keep accounts, and they were really smart.

The world's earliest cuneiform writing, invented by the Sumerians, around 3000 BC.

It is believed that the earliest written language in the world is considered to be cuneiform writing that appeared in the ancient Middle East, dating back 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. The earliest ancient Chinese script confirmed by the academic community is the Yinxu oracle bone inscription in the middle and late Shang Dynasty, which is only about 3,300 years ago. Cuneiform originated from the ancient script of the Mesopotamian plain (Tigris and Euphrates River basins), the earliest civilization of mankind, and this world's earliest script was invented by the Sumerians around 3200 BC, so it is said to be one of the earliest scripts in the world.

BecauseHieroglyphsIt has its own flaws!

I'll give you an example, let's say I'm an ancient, and now I have a slate in front of me, and I've carved an umbrella with it stretched open (well, let's say there was already an umbrella at that time).

At this time, another ancient man came over and saw my stone carving, what would he think? Does he think I'm expressing the concept of an umbrella, or is it easy to bring an umbrella when it rains here, or is it a verb to hold an umbrella?

This is the problem of ancient hieroglyphs, which are symbols that express informationBut not necessarily！So the earliest hieroglyphs.

Where is it, it is the Yangshao of our country.

Or the Rosetta Stone in Egypt.

This has begun to be uncertain, when we see oracle bones or stone carvings, we must ask whether he has broken away from the category of chiseled notes, and has realized the literal attributes of specific symbols to express specific meanings. For example, in my example, umbrella refers to the noun umbrella, and there is no other concept (of course, the word polysemy can be added later, but there is no context and the basic meaning must be clear!). ）。

If not, although we can understand what he is saying from the chiseled image, it does not mean that it is called words.

In contrast, the cuneiform script evolved from the original pictograms.

It is undoubtedly mature and definite in the attributes of the text. Therefore, there is a saying that "the earliest mature script that can be determined is cuneiform", and it is important to add two definite terms here.

Conversely, when did hieroglyphs such as ancient Chinese be recognized as mature scripts? The first ideographic character (composed of 2 or more morphographic elements put together to express the meaning) or the morphophonetic character.

A form of epigrams, a paratogram of sounds) began to appear when they began! At this time, it was already the beginning of the week.

The world's earliest writing is cuneiform writing that appeared in the ancient Middle East. It was created by the ancient Sumerians and belongs to hieroglyphs. Around 3400 B.C., rudiments of cuneiform writing were produced, mostly images.

Around 3000 B.C., the cuneiform writing system matured, and the glyphs became concise and abstract.

The earliest writing in the world should be hieroglyphs, because understanding starts from shapes, and the most direct record is painting, so hieroglyphics were produced.

Cuneiform is the oldest written script known to the world. It is a unique writing system invented by the ancient Sumerians and inherited and modified by the Akkadians.

Hieroglyphs are around 4000 BC, while cuneiform is around 3000 BC.

Theoretically, the world's earliest writings should all be hieroglyphs.

It's a word engraved on a pictographic oracle bone!

The world's earliest writing was pictographic, which means that the writing of the character is recorded according to the original shape of the object.

Jay Chou once mentioned such a place in the song "Love Before the AD", the Mesopotamian Plain, which is the Greek name, this place is in what is now West Asia, that is, the Middle East, in the east of Syria, between the Euphrates River and the Tigris River, so Mesopotamia is translated as the area between the two rivers, also known as the valley of the two rivers. And because this land from the map, narrow, curved, like the rising moon, since ancient times this side of the fertile water and soil to nurture a civilization, is one of the world's famous ancient civilization birthplace, so here is also known as the fertile crescent.

Cuneiform is an ancient Babylonian script that originated in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates riversThis script was invented by the Sumerians around 3200 BCIt is one of the earliest texts in the world.

Almost 5,500 years ago, two groups of people living in the valley of the two rivers, the Sumerians in the south and the Akkadians in the north, established their own small GJ. In 1894 B.C., the ancient kingdom of Babylon was established as a combination of these small states, and culture developed greatly in this large unified empire. The Sumerians were the first to create the Sumerian script.

The Sumerian script is characterized by writing on a piece of wet clay with a pen with one end wide and one pointed and a triangular cross-section, and the so-called writing is to knock the triangular side of the pen into the clay tablet, leaving a wedge-shaped or nail-shaped imprint. According to the needs of linguistic records, multiple such imprints were pieced together to form this cuneiform. This cuneiform script also evolved gradually from pictographic graphic writing.

The clay tablets with this ancient script were dried and arranged neatly on wooden shelves, making them the world's first books. In order to ensure that the words can be strong and carved into a sufficient depth, each dry clay tablet weighs more than one kilogram, which is very inconvenient to use.

Later, the Persian Empire (550-330 BC) arose, conquering all of West Asia, Egypt and other regions, forming a large empire spanning Asia, Africa and Europe. In 330 B.C., Alexander the Great led his army to defeat the Persian Empire, and cuneiform was abolished and died.

a.Sumerians.

b.Akkadians.

c.Assyrians.

d.Hittites.

Check the answer analysis [correct answer] a

Answer Analysis] Cuneiform is an ancient script that originated in the southern part of the ancient Lianghe River basin around 2700 BC and was invented by the Sumerians. （p9）

Knowledge points of this topic: the generation, development and evolution of cuneiform writing

1. Cuneiform.

It was a major invention of the Sumerians, and the Sumerian script evolved from pictorial writing to cuneiform writing over a period of several hundred years, around 2500 BC.

2. Archaeological discoveries have confirmed that in ancient Mesopotamia.

The original appearance of the text did not resemble a cuneiform, but only some flat drawings, and it is clear that the Mesopotamian ancient script, which was later called cuneiform, originated from pictorial hieroglyphs.

Cuneiform first appeared in the ancient Sumerian civilization around 2500 BC.

The ancient Sumerian civilization was located in the area of present-day Iraq. The characters were originally inscribed on clay tablets and later appeared on other mediums as well, such as steles and pottery tablets. A large number of cuneiform documents have survived in Sumerian official documents, legal documents, business records, literary works, and religious texts.

The discovery of these documents is of great significance for our understanding of ancient Sumerian society and culture.

The first interpreter of cuneiform was the 19th-century Assyrian Henry Roberts, who successfully deciphered a portion of cuneiform through his study of cuneiform on Moldoki tablets of the Sassanid dynasty of Persia. The interpretation of cuneiform mainly relies on the study and comparison of a large number of documents. Through comparative analysis of different texts, scholars have gradually understood some common vocabulary and grammatical rules in cuneiform scripts.

The development of the abstraction of cuneiform

Sumerian writing was produced gradually, from the expression of certain ideas with the help of graphics to the emergence of writing through a 1,000-year evolutionary process. Around 3500 B.C., the Sumerians began carving images into stone or engraving on clay as a sign of possession: either a rock to represent a "heart of stone" or a tree to represent a house.

About 500 years later, the evolution from graphics to writing accelerated dramatically. By that time, Sumerian temple administrators used a number of standardized schematic diagrams, which were combined to preserve the temple's property archives and business transaction files. Although the written script of this period still has the characteristics of hieroglyphs, it has gone beyond the stage of using pictures to represent people and concrete things, and has developed to use pictures to represent abstract things and hunger, such as a bowl for food, and a head and a bowl for eating.