![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/04124247\/SEI_227733093.jpg\")
<\/div>A cylinder seal and its design imprinted onto clay<\/p>\n
Franck Raux \u00a9 2001 GrandPalaisRmn (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s oldest known writing system may have had its origins in the imagery on decorated cylinders used to denote ownership. Some of the symbols on these cylinder seals correspond to those used in proto-cuneiform, a form of proto-writing used in Mesopotamia.<\/p>\n
The finding indicates that the invention of writing<\/a> in Mesopotamia was a decentralised process, in which many people across a wide area contributed to the set of symbols used.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been this longstanding reconstruction of how writing appeared in Mesopotamia, which is arguably the earliest invention of writing in the world,\u201d says Silvia Ferrara<\/a> at the University of Bologna in Italy. \u201cWe\u2019re retracing the trajectory in a way that\u2019s more, I would say, colourful, less straitjacketed.\u201d<\/p>\n The oldest known true writing system<\/a> is cuneiform, invented around 3200 BC in Mesopotamia. It was preceded by a simpler system called proto-cuneiform, which was in use from 3350 to 3000 BC.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Proto-writing like proto-cuneiform is distinguished by a lack of grammatical rules, which means it cannot convey complex meanings, says Amy Richardson<\/a> at the University of Reading in the UK, who wasn\u2019t involved in the research. For instance, proto-cuneiform can be used to label something as \u201cseven bushels of wheat\u201d, but only true writing like cuneiform can say \u201cseven bushels of wheat will be delivered to you\u201d.<\/p>\n The origins of proto-cuneiform have often been traced to clay tokens. These came in a variety of shapes, such as discs and spheres, and were often engraved with patterns. The tokens could be pressed into wet clay, creating a symbol. Some of the symbols on the tokens are similar to those found in proto-cuneiform, as documented by Denise Schmandt-Besserat<\/a> at the University of Texas at Austin in her two-volume book Before Writing<\/em><\/a> in 1992.<\/p>\n There is some evidence for a role of tokens in the origin of proto-cuneiform, says Ferrara. \u201cBut you cannot explain all the signs.\u201d<\/p>\n Ferrara and her colleagues Kathryn Kelley<\/a> and Mattia Cartolano<\/a>, also at the University of Bologna, have instead explored another source of symbols: cylinder seals. These cylindrical objects have patterns and images embossed on them, and leave a rectangular collection of symbols when rolled over sheets of wet clay. The symbols often referred to goods being transported, or to administrators involved in transactions, says Cartolano.<\/p>\n Two sides of a proto-cuneiform tablet<\/p>\n CDLI<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n The team examined cylinder seals from a wide area of south-west Asia, including Mesopotamia, that dated to 4400 to 3400 BC. They found several symbols that corresponded to proto-cuneiform symbols.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the clearest examples that we found is the use of the images of fringed cloth and vessel in a net,\u201d says Cartolano. These have well-understood meanings: they refer to the transport of goods. And they are found both on cylinder seals and proto-cuneiform tablets.<\/p>\n The idea that the symbols on cylinder seals led to some of the symbols in proto-cuneiform was previously suggested by Holly Pittman<\/a> at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in a 1994 book chapter<\/a> and developed in later publications<\/a>. \u201cI am gratified that, 30 years after I first proposed the fundamental role of seal imagery in the origins of proto-cuneiform script, that a new generation of scholars have taken up my idea and, with their expertise in cuneiform script, have put details to my argument,\u201d says Pittman. She adds that in the 1990s her idea was dismissed \u201cwithout serious consideration\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI find it to be very convincing,\u201d says Richardson. \u201cThere does seem to be a really neat correlation in the particular examples that they\u2019re illustrating in this article.\u201d Her own research has found that cylinder seals were also used to record interactions between cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t mean that tokens didn\u2019t play a role. \u201cI think there\u2019s still some strong arguments to make that those tokens really are part of the foundation of abstraction,\u201d says Richardson. In particular, they seem to have been important for the development of counting systems.<\/p>\n If proto-cuneiform really did arise in this hodge-podge way, drawn from tokens, cylinder seals and possibly other sources, it may tell us something about who was inventing it, says Ferrara. \u201cThere is evidence for making a claim that the invention of writing in Mesopotamia was, in fact, much more decentralised than we think,\u201d she says. While powerful people in the major city of Uruk<\/a> no doubt played a role, perhaps so did other administrators and tradespeople scattered over the region. \u201cI think there\u2019s evidence for having a more widespread\u2026 and more distributed prompt to writing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n![\"Photograph](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/04125550\/SEI_227733401.jpg\")
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