For what do they use written forms of communication? You can download a list of some occupations which were part of life in ancient Mesopotamia. Why would picture writing be difficult to use for some of these purposes? Based on what students learned from the timeline activity, what do they think are some jobs that probably existed in ancient Mesopotamia: Farmer? The members of this unknown civilization. Moreover, these markings are more or less similar to the shapes drawn on clay tablets that date back to about 3100 bce and that are unambiguously related to the Sumerian language. The historical record is much more explicit after 3200 bce and reveals clearly the stages involved in the evolution from a limited system of notation suitable for recording particular events into a full general-purpose orthography. Why do you think the first records recorded the sale of grains and livestock? Having a written record of those transactions would make the collection of taxes both more exact and more efficient. Cuneiform writing was understood before we knew much about civilization in Ancient Mesopotamia. Then, each group will present its hypotheses about what the object can tell us today about life in ancient Mesopotamia. A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America, Used by scribes for more than three millennia, cuneiform writing opens a dramatic window onto ancient Mesopotamian life. Furthermore, cuneiform was used to communicate and formalize legal systems, most famously Hammurabis Code. NCSS.D2.His.2.6-8. For larger classes you may wish to divide the class into small groups and have each group work on answering one of the following questions, which they should share with the rest of the class. You may wish to have them work together in small groups. constructed buildings as shown on the reverse of the coin, believed in a Supreme Being and so forth. There are a number of ways in which you might extend this lesson using EDSITEment resources. Distribute the Timeline: Mesopotamia 4000-1000 BCE activity which is available as a PDF for this lesson, or you can do this as an online activity. Classify series of historical events and developments as examples of change and/or continuity. Listen to a recorded reading of this page: Go here to learn how to write like a Babylonian. You can use this list as a point of comparison with the list that the class has compiled. Ask students to think about the following questions as they track the evolution of civilization and writing in ancient Mesopotamia: In this activity students will be introduced to the worlds first writing systemcuneiformas they work through the British Museum's Mesopotamia site interactive online activity The Story of Writing, available through the EDSITEment resource The Oriental Institute: The University of Chicago. Where is writing used as the primary communication device? Have students answer the following questions in class discussion. While most tablets were, in fact, used for mundane bookkeeping or scribal exercises, some of them bear inscriptions that offer unexpected insights into the minute details of and momentous events in the lives of ancient Mesopotamians. Tokens placed in an envelope might have constituted a sort of bill of lading or a record of indebtedness. You may wish to sketch barley on the board, or show a photograph of barley, such as this photograph. Remind students that the earliest written records were made to document buying and selling things like barley or domestic animals. Presentation to the class will proceed in chronological order, and should try to answer the following questions: Note: Each of the following artifact images comes with a translation or notes explaining the contents. Explain how changes in transportation and communication technology influence the spatial connections among human settlements and affect the diffusion of ideas and cultural practices. A series of successive kingdomsSumer, Akkadia (also spelled Accadia), Assyria, Babyloniabuilt cities with monumental architecture, in which trade and commerce were thriving, and even early forms of plumbing were invented for the ruling class. A pictograph, a pictorial representation of barleypresumably like the one youve drawn on the board -- is one of the signs we find on the oldest examples of writing from the region. The earliest known civilization developed along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now the country of Iraq. It implicitly challenged the perception that cuneiform tablets were used merely for basic accounting, such as tallying grain, rather than for complex astronomical calculations. Which do students hypothesize would appear earlier/later on the timeline? The next major stage in the evolution of Sumerian writing was the adoption of the phonographic principle, the use of a sign to represent a common sound rather than a common meaning. Some of the envelopes have markings that correspond to the clay shapes inside. Were the students surprised to learn some of the listed jobs existed in ancient Mesopotamia? Why was it so important to have a written record of agricultural transactions? One is in Persian (the language that is still used in Iran today) and another is Assyrian cuneiform from Mesopotamia. Hammurabi's Code: What Does It Tell Us About Old Babylonia? They successfully grew crops of barley and other grains, from which they began to produce dietary staples and other products, such as bread and beer. An increasingly complex civilization encouraged the development of an increasingly sophisticated form of writing. Trader? One important early key to deciphering the script proved to be the discovery of a kind of cuneiform Rosetta Stone, a circa 500 B.C. To serve as a reminder of the contents of the envelope so that every reader would not need to break open the envelope to read the contents, corresponding shapes were impressed upon the envelope. Did writing change the way they approached the task? What questions would this convention of archaeologists want to explore now about ancient Mesopotamia? How might it have made it harder? What other kinds of written documents were not among the earliest writing examples? Click Here to see full-size tableThe outline of the development of the Sumerian writing system has been worked out by paleographers. The first Mesopotamian written representation of barley was a picture. The increasingly sophisticated system of writing that developed also helped the civilization develop further, facilitating the management of complex commercial, religious, political, and military systems. Each group should work together to provide any additional information about the development that was in the event summary. Barley was a very important crop in ancient Mesopotamia. The development of successful agriculture, which relied on the regions fertile soils and an irrigation system that took advantage of its consistent water supply, led to the development of the worlds first cities. Graphs for numerals were geometric shapes, while those for objects were often stylized pictures of the things they represented. In addition to the historical basis for these activities, this lesson is also about the nature of written language, how it evolves and how it serves civilization. With cuneiform, writers could tell stories, relate histories, and support the rule of kings. The earliest known writing originated with the Sumerians about 5500 years ago. More complicated number systems began to develop. Identify specific artifacts that demonstrate how the writing system in Mesopotamia was transformed. There are no verbs in the tablet, though the word plucked, used here as an adjective, is close. The multiplication of types of tokens could correspond to the increase in the number of kinds of goods that were exchanged with the rise of urbanization in the 4th millennium bce. Sumerian script was adopted in the 3rd millennium bce by the Akkadians, who greatly expanded the phonographic properties of the script. This may help them to think about why people wanted to keep track of the buying and selling of barley. What does it look like in its natural state? You may wish to discuss the role of the priestly class in ancient Mesopotamia, as elite, Mesopotamian priests had a far more expanded role in society than students may have experienced with members of the clergy today. But if the content was marked on the envelope, there was no need to put the tokens in an envelope at all; the envelope could be flattened into a convenient surface and the shapes impressed on it. Which objects, concepts and ideas are the ones you would make sure were standardized and learned right away? In the next stage of development, pictographs (simple pictures of an object) were drawn into wet clay, and these images replaced the tokens. Now that there was no need for the tokens at all, their message was simply inscribed into the clay. The pictographic symbols were refined into the writing system known as cuneiform. As a result, people were able, for the first time, to read the writing on clay tablets found in the vicinity of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. You may wish to go around the room two or three times. Students should ponder the idea that an abstract writing system would require learning the system of signs. NCSS.D2.His.3.6-8. Students might think some of the following questions in order to help them understand the process: Did the change allow the ancient Mesopotamians to include a greater or a lesser number of ideas and objects in their writing? Using what theyve learned about the symbols and their evolution, the students should be able to place the following artifacts in the chronological order of their creation. What kinds of things did they believe were the most necessary to keep a record of? By investigating this tablet, we learn that: By investigating the tablet students may also note additional characteristics about the civilization which produced it. Next, students should think about what kind of an effect this type of record keeping might have on the rest of society. What does picture writing do well? What other records might have been useful for authorities to keep? You may wish to distribute to each group this graphic organizer for writing down the information they gather. Students may note that pictographs can represent nouns, small numbers, and some prepositionsTwo men on horseback.. You may wish to remind students that these records were similar to receipts. For students who have had the opportunity to learn about Mesopotamia this exercise will remind them of some of the major events in the history of the area. How? Explain how changes in transportation and communication technology influence the spatial connections among human settlements and affect the diffusion of ideas and cultural practices., Egyptian Symbols and Figures: Hieroglyphs, British Museums introduction to Mesopotamia: Geography, The Oriental Institute: The University of Chicago, Administrative tablet with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars, Cuneiform Voucher for Rations at a Way Station, Record of Delivery and Expenditure of Cattle, Image of Tablet with Babylonian Flood Myth, Using Chemistry to Learn the Provenance of Clay Tablets, Puzzle Challenge: Putting Artifacts Back Together, Cuneiform Prism with the Sumerian King List, EDSITEments Persian Wars Resource Pages. What advantages does picture writing have? One reason is that although the area was rich in agriculture, it was poor in many natural resources? Archaic Sumerian used mostly graphs representing numerals, names for objects, and names of persons. Today, the ability to read cuneiform is the key to understanding all manner of cultural activities in the ancient Near Eastfrom determining what was known of the cosmos and its workings, to the august lives of Assyrian kings, to the secrets of making a Babylonian stew. They know the English language, but they know little else about America in the 21st century. In this activity students will be introduced to the time period in which the first writing developed, and the major events which coincided with this development in ancient Mesopotamia. If practical you may wish to project the timeline onto a screen or redraw the timeline on the board. What in the artifact itself supports their hypothesis? After cuneiform was replaced by alphabetic writing sometime after the first century A.D., the hundreds of thousands of clay tablets and other inscribed objects went unread for nearly 2,000 years. To help them understand the task they will be completing in this activity, begin by asking students to look at one contemporary object on which writing is found, such as a penny. For example, the graph representing water appears to have been used also to represent the locative suffix in, because the latter sounded the same as, or similar to, the word water.