World’s oldest writing system may have its origins in mysterious, undeciphered symbols

New Findings About Origins of Writing Found in Mesopotamia

New research traces Mesopotamia origins of writing back to trade symbols. Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art / CC0 Researchers have found the origins of writing and explained that the world’s oldest writing system might have come from simple symbols used in trade. These symbols were carved onto small cylinders and helped people keep track of farm goods and cloth, a new study shows. This discovery supports an older idea. Long ago, in ancient Meso…

Origin Of Written Language Revealed In 5,500-Year-Old Mesopotamian Artifacts

An early step in the story of literature has been found in the Tigris-Euphrates river region.

Mysterious engraved pictographs may have led to the earliest form of writing

A link exists between 6,000-year-old engravings on cylindrical seals used on clay tablets and cuneiform, the world’s oldest writing system, according to new research.

6,000 year-old Mesopotamian artifacts linked to the dawn of writing

The origins of writing in ancient Mesopotamia and beyond may rest on a group of cylindrical seals. A team of archeologists from the University of Bologna in Italy has identified a series of correlations between the designs engraved on some roughly 6,000-year-old cylinders and other signs of the proto-cuneiform script that emerged in present day Iraq. The findings are detailed in a study published November 5 in the journal Antiquity.  Making the …

Origins of world's earliest writing point to symbols on 'seals' used in Mesopotamian trade

Researchers investigating how the first writing arose identified the motifs on preliterate "cylinder seals" used in the trade of agricultural products and textiles.

Exploration of Cylinder Sealing and its Influence on the Development of Writing in Ancient Southwest Asia

Administrative innovations in Southwest Asia in the fourth millennium BC, such as cylindrical seals wrapped around the earliest clay tablets, laid the foundation for one of the first writing systems, Protocuneiform. Although seals were rich in iconography, few studies have focused on the potential influence of specific motifs on the development of sign-based proto-cuneiform. in [...] Source The post Exploration of Cylinder Sealing and its Influe…