page_title: Writing
section_title: Sumer
hierarchical_section_title: Writing / History of writing / Sumer
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the "Amarna Letters", in this case a cuneiform tablet from Tushratta, King of the Mitanni, to the pharaoh Amenhotep III-(Akhenaten's father), circa 1350 BC, and found in El-Amarna-(1 of 13 letters authored by Tushratta). This letter contains a negotiation of marriage between the pharaoh and Tushratta's duaghter en:Tadukhipa. (Tushratta letter en:Amarna letter EA 19, obverse) - WAA 29791.
context_page_description: Writing is the act of recording language on a visual medium using a set of symbols. The symbols must be known to others, so that the text may be read.
  A text may also use other visual systems, such as illustrations and decorations. These are not called writing, but may help the message work. Usually, all educated people in a country use the same writing system to record the same language. To be able to read and write is to be literate.
  Writing differs from speech because the readers need not be present at the time. We can read writing from long ago, and from different parts of the world. Text stores and communicates knowledge. Writing is one of the greatest inventions of the human species. It was invented after people settled in towns, and after agriculture started. Writing dates from about 3,300BC, which is over 5000 years ago, in the Middle East.
  Writing today is usually on paper, though there are ways to print on almost any surface. Television and movie screens can also display writing, and so can computer screens. Many writing materials were invented, long before paper. Clay, papyrus, wood, slate and parchment have all been used.
context_section_description: The Sumerians lived in Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. 5000 years ago this was a fertile region and is now mostly in Iraq. The Sumerians developed a form of writing called cuneiform. Triangular marks were pressed into soft clay tablets. After the clay had dried in the sun the tablets were baked. Then they were carried somewhere else for others to read. We know that its first uses were for trade, accounting and administration.
  The earliest signs were mostly pictorial, but soon they stood as symbols for objects, ideas and sounds. This writing system was extremely successful, and outlasted the Sumerian empire. It was then used by other civilisations in the Middle East, such as the Old 
  Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Elamite, Hittite, Old Persian and Ugaritic empires. The last cuneiform inscription was dated as AD75. Thus the system had lasted for more than 3000 years.ᵖ⁷¹ Each version of cuneiform had to be deciphered separately, because all the languages were different. Documents (including stone objects) written in more than one language provided the clues.
caption: Letter negotiating a marriage ~1350 BC. It is from Tushratta, King of the Mitanni, to the pharaoh Amenhotep III
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