The Sumerian Writing System

To the modern human writing is a second nature, most people do not think twice before they go to write a letter to someone or make a grocery list. What is not often thought about is the world before there was a written language and how people developed the first written way of communication. People began to realize that it was not reliable to remember everything that was used to run their society and that there was a need to record this information. They needed to be able to write down the laws and punishments for people that broke them, they needed a way to record their religious beliefs and to keep track of important events in their history. Before a writing system was developed people started drawing pictures, these were called pictographs.
They originally needed a writing system so they could keep documentation of their history, their cultural values, the laws, trading documents, and to keep track of tax records. Now that the Sumerians had a language that was not just by oral communication they began to write letters for themselves and others, this was really important because it allows scholars today to get a deeper understanding of their everyday life and culture. If they had not come up with a writing system when they did and waited until later, people today would not have nearly as much knowledge about prehistory as they do. Cuneiform began to spread to all over the world which made it even more useful for communication, as stated by Nancy Stockdale in her reference article, "as one of the oldest forms of writing known to humanity cuneiform had a immeasurable impact on societies in Mesopotamia. Used in one form or another from the fourth millennium BCE until the first century CE cuneiform gave written expression to millions of people in many different societies and
Cuneiform is a written language carved onto soft clay tablets using a sharp tool called a stylus and then set out in the sun to dry to harden the clay. Once the tablets are dry they can last for millions of years, without being damaged. When cuneiform was first developed it was very similar to pictographs and then as the language evolved people began to read left to right and the language transformed into more symbols for each letter or sound not pictures that meant a specific thing. As stated by Joshua J. Mark "Cuneiform developed to the point where it could be made clear, to use Kriwaczek's example, whether the sheep were coming or going to the temple, for what purpose, and whether they were living or dead." Cuneiform continued to develop and adapted to the new people and new circumstances that arose in the civilizations that were dependent on the language, until 100 B.C.E when it was abandoned for alphabetic