Ah nice. I saw that on PBS and loved it. I didn't remember/realize it was from the BBC originally.. now I'm just disappointed to not have another doc on that topic.
Yes! They used a reed with a wedge profile and pressed it into soft clay at different angles to make the different marks. There are many different cuneiform writing systems - cuneus is Latin for "wedge".
I think it's fair to say it was quite impractical compared to modern writing, and you can see how it got vastly simpler over time - some symbols had dozens of individual marks, but were eventually obsoleted or simplified to have only a handful. The thing is, society was not literate then, so it was only the scribe profession that needed to use it.
And when you get into the akkadian system where one symbol could have a phonetic meaning (like a letter) or more than one, or also a logographic meaning (one symbol=one word), it is quite chaotic.
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I bet the Sumerians would be proud 🥹
They cover this in the BBC documentary The Secret History of Writing, which is really worth a watch if you haven't seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxUuPq3mWaU
Oh that sounds right up my alley, thank you.
Ah nice. I saw that on PBS and loved it. I didn't remember/realize it was from the BBC originally.. now I'm just disappointed to not have another doc on that topic.
Thanks so much! That was a fascinating watch and far more in-depth than expected.
This is like one of those memes showing a wolf transforming into a pug from selective breeding.
I love letters that used to just be a little guy. The LUGAL cuneiform symbol 𒈗 is another example. (Tilt your head to the left - he's wearing a hat! )
You can see the man component (lu) here:
Do we know how they wrote the stuff in 600 BC? That shit looks so annoying to do without stamps
Yes! They used a reed with a wedge profile and pressed it into soft clay at different angles to make the different marks. There are many different cuneiform writing systems - cuneus is Latin for "wedge".
I think it's fair to say it was quite impractical compared to modern writing, and you can see how it got vastly simpler over time - some symbols had dozens of individual marks, but were eventually obsoleted or simplified to have only a handful. The thing is, society was not literate then, so it was only the scribe profession that needed to use it.
And when you get into the akkadian system where one symbol could have a phonetic meaning (like a letter) or more than one, or also a logographic meaning (one symbol=one word), it is quite chaotic.
Hey Renault, can you say the letter E lots of times?
At about 10:50 if the “link to current time” doesn’t work
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE