Thread by @Moudhy

If you’re looking for an enjoyable, accessible introduction to the cuneiform writing system and its history, then look no further than this lovely book by Irving Finkel and @JonTaylor_BM

Something that rarely gets explained is that cuneiform was not a language, but a writing system used to record different languages, including Sumerian and Akkadian.

Just like how the writing system used to write English is also used for French, German, etc with some variations

Cuneiform has many script stages. In other words, it changes a lot over the extremely long period of its use with early versions being more pictographic and later ones, more stylised

This book introduces its long history and some of the terminology used to describe the stages

Compare the cuneiform sign ninda, a logogram which represents the Sumerian word for “food” or “bread”.

The first image is of ninda in a tablet from Ur ~3000 BCE, while the others are of ninda in a fragment of a medical text from Nineveh ~650 BCE. Big difference.

Some cuneiform tablets have drawings and doodles on them.

This 4,000-year-old tablet by a scribal student appears to show the teacher and is delightfully featured in the short book, “Cuneiform”, by Irving Finkel and @JonTaylor_BM

For more cuneiform tablets that feature doodles and drawings, here’s a thread

https://twitter.com/moudhy/status/1095314844482441218?s=21

If you want to learn some of the basics for writing cuneiform, which gets its name in English from the Latin word, cuneus “wedge”, this short introduction to cuneiform has got you covered