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@cooleiform

23 Dec

Fact 23: Not all "cuneiform writing" actually meant something. Sometimes just imitating the general appearance of cuneiform-like signs could be enough — why bother to learn the whole complex writing system if others can't read it anyway?

Such “pseudo-cuneiform” text is known from some seals and charms, like these Lamaštu amulets (britishmuseum.org/collection/obj… & britishmuseum.org/collection/obj…). Presumably the intended viewers couldn't read cuneiform, so it didn't matter if the signs were nonsense. They still looked impressive!

Of course, such “pseudo-writing” is not restricted to cuneiform, but is found all over the world and for all writing systems. For a nice overview, see e.g. Houston 2018, “Writing that Isn’t: Pseudo-Scripts in Comparative View”, cairn.info/revue-l-homme-…

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@cooleiform

16 Dec

Fact 16: Akkadian (Babylonian, Assyrian) cuneiform and Japanese writing system have surprisingly many common features. In this short thread we’ll show some of them. #AdventCalendar

Basics of Akkadian & Japanese
- both mix logograms (word signs) & phonetic signs
- both write syllables, not invidual sounds
-…but neither is purely syllabic, often you need two signs for one syllable
- both have signs which can be read in more than one way, depending on context

And why? Basically, because Japanese and Akkadian speakers both borrowed their writing system from a people speaking a completely different language, Japanese from Chinese and Akkadian from Sumerian, both being the first written languages in the area.

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@cooleiform

15 Dec

Fact 15: Many kinds of texts were written in cuneiform. While inscriptions carved in stone often feature the great deeds of kings, plenty of everyday letters, contracts, accounting documents and even school exercises have also survived on clay tablets.

The earliest proto-cuneiform tablets were mostly numerical accounts of things like grain, livestock, trade goods or even people — basically ancient spreadsheets — with little if any actual written text. Yes, accounting was invented before writing!

Many tablets come from ancient scribal schools. Some feature mathematical exercises, model contracts or copies of old Sumerian tales and proverbs. Others are just basic exercises in writing on clay, like this one where a student simply wrote the same simple signs over and over.

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