New research links artifacts 6,000-years-old to writing in Mesopotamia and a possible method to decipher it

Amazing stuff!

"Archaeologists have identified the precursors of writing in the designs of ancient seals dating back about 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

Proto-cuneiform is one of the earliest written languages, developed at the end of the fourth millennium BCE in the influential Mesopotamian city of Uruk, located in what is now southern Iraq. The script consists of hundreds of pictographs – image-based symbols or “signs” that often convey meaning by resembling a physical object. ...

This could change now that a team of researchers from the University of Bologna in Italy have uncovered a direct link between specific proto-cuneiform signs and the designs of artifacts called cylinder seals. ..."

"... Starting in the mid-fourth millennium BCE, cylinder seals were used as part of an accounting system to track the production, storage, and transport of various consumer goods, particularly agricultural and textile products.

It is in this context that proto-cuneiform appeared: an archaic form of writing made up of hundreds of pictographic signs, more than half of which remain undeciphered to this day. Like cylinder seals, proto-cuneiform was used for accounting, though its use is primarily documented in southern Iraq. ..."

From the abstract:

"Administrative innovations in South-west Asia during the fourth millennium BC, including the cylinder seals that were rolled on the earliest clay tablets, laid the foundations for proto-cuneiform script, one of the first writing systems. Seals were rich in iconography, but little research has focused on the potential influence of specific motifs on the development of the sign-based proto-cuneiform script. Here, the authors identify symbolic precursors to fundamental proto-cuneiform signs among late pre-literate seal motifs that describe the transportation of vessels and textiles, highlighting the synergy of early systems of clay-based communication."

New research links artifacts 6,000-years-old to writing

The origin of writing in Mesopotamia is tied to designs engraved on ancient cylinder seals (original news release) "Designs on stone cylinders dating back six thousand years correspond to some signs of the proto-cuneiform script that emerged in the city of Uruk, in southern Iraq, around 3350–3000 BCE. This discovery, made by a research team at the University of Bologna, offers a direct connection in the transition from prehistory to history"

Seals and signs: tracing the origins of writing in ancient South-west Asia (open access)

Example of a cylinder seal (left) and its design imprinted onto clay (right)

Diagrams of proto-cuneiform signs and their precursors from pre-literate seal artifacts.