Cuneiform: The Earliest Form of Writing from Ancient Mesopotamia
Cuneiform is a writing system or script which was developed by the ancient Sumerians in Ancient Mesopotamia between 3500 and 3000 BCE. It is the earliest form of writing in the world and is thought to have developed so people could communicate long-distance in trade. The word cuneiform actually comes from the Latin for wedge, cuneus, since to write cuneiform, scribes would have pressed a triangular-shaped reed stylus into soft clay which produced the wedge-like impressions.
Cuneiform was used by all of the great Mesopotamian civilisations until alphabetic scripts became more popular in around 100 BCE. Some of these cultures were; the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, Hatti, Hittites, Assyrians and the Hurrians. Cuneiform has been found on clay tablets (often referred to ad cuneiform tablets), in a number of different languages including Babylonian cuneiform and Sumerian cuneiform. The earliest form of cuneiform is known as proto-cuneiform. This early script was pictorial, since the tablets addressed tangible things like how much cattle were traded, a battle, the amount of grain collected as taxes, a flood or a king. The development in cuneiform script meant that emotions, intent, and intangible ideas could be better expressed, and in general, the texts were more detailed and clearer.
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- CHAPTERS -
0:00 Introduction
0:40 What is Cuneiform?
2:25 Development of Cuneiform
3:49 Literature Originally Written in Cuneiform
5:39 Outro
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Cuneiform www.worldhisto...
Sumerian Language www.worldhisto...
Mesopotamia www.worldhisto...
Cuneiform Lexical Lists www.worldhisto...
Gilgamesh www.worldhisto...
Enheduanna www.worldhisto...
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Пікірлер: 105
Do you know of any myths that have been transmitted across cultures and time? Let us know!
@NegdoshaManido
4 ай бұрын
The first idea, transmitted from antiquity and appearing in other cultures, that comes to mind for me, is the sky beings or spirit beings impregnating human females to produce supermen. I am a Potawatomi Native American, and we have this story in our traditions, as do the Greeks, and the Hebrews, as recorded in Genesis 6.
Excellent, concise and informative video. Thank you.
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
3 жыл бұрын
Thankyou once again for watching!
I just found this channel, its a great channel to imporv e english and learning universal story as well!!! great job
Bible is not the oldest book
Gosh, I’m learning so much from your excellent work, huge thanks!!!!!
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
Thanks so much, we love hearing that! 🙂
loved the video, learned a lot, and thumbs up. However I have a question about the "bible being previously thought as the oldest book". How can anyone have ever have thought this considering all the countless ancient Greek writers like Socrates and Plato and ancient Greek playwrites like Menander?
@marykarensolomon7103
2 жыл бұрын
Because the Bible is very old; The “J” books were thought to have been written by individuals within King David’s or Solomon’s courts, around 1000 BCE. The Priestly and “E” authors were thought to live even earlier.
@serpentines6356
2 жыл бұрын
Yes, notice the two creation stories in the first two chapters of Genesis. Slightly different versions. First one - Genesis 1, is thought to have been written by the Priestly class. Genesis 2 - the Yahwist version.
@BlackLotusVisualArchive
2 жыл бұрын
Also back then, most of Assyriology and Mesopotamian studies was meant to try to uncover the history behind the bible. By accident they discovered Sumerian
@gatleystone2480
Жыл бұрын
theyre talking about the old testament not the new testament. the old testament is older than those ancient greek texts
@vlatkosurlan545
Жыл бұрын
Because the Bible reports on the events from the creation onwards and is therefore, by logical necessity, the book containing the oldest information available, since the only witness of the creation is the Creator himself. Unless you accept the modern stance of placing yourself as the authority over deciding what is true and what is not, in which case you must invariably reach the conclusion that the Bible is false since the Bible has a different ultimate authority.
One of the earliest known forms of written expression is cuneiform. Complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of ideographic form like Chinese or early mnemonic symbols. Egyptian hieroglyphs were the writing system used in Ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters. Harappan script is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilization, that may be a preciser to Sanskrit: The Rig Veda is thought to be written around 1500 BC, making it 3500 years old. The cuneiform texts you refer to in this video are 5000 years old. So, the definition of writing system seems a bit arbitrary. I am certain that China would object.
Excellent introduction to cuneiform, Kelly. Thanks.
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
2 жыл бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for ur service
F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C. As a LOVER of Words and Language I found this fascinating. As a Modern Calligraphy and Graffiti artist I found it IMPRESSIVE and INSPIRING. Thank You.
@serpentines6356
2 жыл бұрын
I am somewhat of an artist, haven't done much for awhile, and had a brother who was a scholar in ancient Mesopotamian history. He knew how to read, decifer, and write this stuff. Also knew Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, Ugarit, etc. Total braniac. I love words, and language too. It would be cool to incorporate some of this writing in graffiti I would think. Would be cool to learn some of the symbols, and write something that actually made use of it. Blessings. 🙏 🌿 🌎
Truly very interesting. Thank you for your content...
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
3 жыл бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching :)
Very nice and informative as usual!
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
3 жыл бұрын
Thank you! Cheers!
interesting video indeed! i will be browsing your playlists later xD
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching, hope you enjoy our other videos!
That was a good and very interesting video, things written 5000 years ago that’s wild to think about, what would THEY write about us in 5000 years ?? Thank you
Excellent, are there still languages in the world descended from the languages of Ancient Mesopotamia?
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
3 ай бұрын
Thanks for watching! Sadly, no, all the ancient Mesopotamian languages died out long ago.
Great video, thank you so much
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
3 жыл бұрын
You are welcome! Thanks for watching!
"...until written scripts became popular in about 100 b.c.e." This dating is known to be off, now. There is a new BBC video about the discovery of an early bronze age, Canaanite tusk comb, dated to approximately 1700 BC in the video description, which carries an inscription of a complete sentence using an alphabet. The cuneiform is still older than known alphabets, though.
Thanks for this. Cuneiform was also used by the Persians during the achamenian period...and some survives in Bombay even today, brought by the Parsis in the 7th century.
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching! 🙂
Love to look at those tablet, amazing type of writing. Is there a Champollion of the cuneiform world? Do we know the proportion of the population able to write/ read the language? Do we know how it sounds? And most importantly, is the choice of T-Shirt specific of the video theme 👌? Great video
@SiqueScarface
3 ай бұрын
Yes, there is. His name is Georg Friedrich Grotefend. He managed to decipher the first cuneiform script, the Ancient Persian cuneiform. And he used a method similar to that of Champollion. He looked for sequences which could be the name of kings, the same way Champollion discovered that the cartouches in Egypt hieroglyphs encompass royal names. But while Egyptian hieroglyphs were used for a single language (o.k. a language changing over the long time of more than 2000 years hieroglyphs were used), cuneiform was used to write many different languages of very different language families, like Sumerian, of which we know no relative to Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian, which are Semitic languages and thus related to Hebrew and Arabian, to Hurritian and Urartian, while closely related, have no known other relatives to Hittite and Ancient Persian, which both are Indo-Germanic languages and thus related to English. Differently than Champollion, who in one go opened up all Ancient Egyptian writing, because it is one continious language development, Georg Friedrich Grotefend only deciphered Ancient Persian. And it took much effort and the work of many other scholars to read all the other cuneiform written languages. Cuneiform is a whole class of writing systems, not a single script. And despite superficial similarities, there are all kinds of scripts within Cuneiform, from symbolic systems like Old Sumerian to alphabets like Ugaritic or a syllabary like Hittite Cuneiform.
Awesome video!!!!
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
Thanks!
Ever found old recpts add found a market Zaire’s books sometimes it’s just accounting.
Thanks so much for this crisply informative vid.
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
You're very welcome, Nancy. 🙂
Awesome video.
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
Thank you, we're glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Nice video
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks very much, thanks for watching!
The grate flood narration was in Indian mythology Mesopotamia history and in Bible also.
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
5 ай бұрын
Yes, it's a myth that is common to many ancient civilizations, which is fascinating. Thanks for watching!
How old is the Bible? The Rig Veda is thought to be written around 1500 BC, making it 3500 years old. The cuneiform texts you refer to in this video are 5000 years old. So where does the Bible sit between these two?
@pacefactor
2 жыл бұрын
MEGGs history of graphic design and general art history textbooks do cover this, and more. As well as the general growth and change of written scripts outside of Mesopotamia. This video skips over a lot and severely oversimplifies to only simply state "the bible is not the oldest book in the world" which is been standard for a while now and feels contrived.
@juliantreidiii
2 жыл бұрын
The Bible is between 3,400 and 1,900 years old. Scientists have finally been able to read the oldest biblical text ever found. The 2,000-year-old scroll has been in the hands of archaeologists for decades. Most Biblical scholars believe the Book of Genesis was the first book to be written down. This would have happened around 1450 BC to 1400 BC.
@serpentines6356
2 жыл бұрын
@@juliantreidiii Thanks Julian. 🙏 🌿
@serpentines6356
2 жыл бұрын
@@pacefactor Well, the video was meant to be a simple intro. to cuneiform.
Hi ma'am 👋 I am from India 😊
It's almost like...like...The Bible was based on Sumerian writings!
@ambassador130
5 ай бұрын
Or… it’s like … like… the Sumerian account of the flood drew upon a pre existing flood narrative that would have been known by the generations that came after the event had passed. Then at the rebellion at Babel, various versions of the event were developed as groups migrated away and language was confused.
ok, looking for the full cuneiform texts translated correctly in the nearest English equivalent!
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
Hi! If you do a Google search, you should be able to find some resources. 🙂
@theministeroftherealtruth
Жыл бұрын
@@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia Cheers! Found all about it from a Syrian guy online,but it's all in Syrian or Assyrian so stumbled upon a means to translate all of that into English and vice versa!
4:20 The banner is supposed to read "Enuma Elish" not "Emuna Elish."
I just want to know, what language that ancient egytian talking everyday, painting language!! And if have cavilization, imposible they dont have any writing script
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
Their language was ancient Egyptian, which is similar to Arabic, Hebrew and Akkadian, but is no longer used anymore. Their script was hieroglyphs.
Where is the link to the love song?
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
2 жыл бұрын
Hi! You can find our video on The World's Oldest Long Song here kzread.info/dash/bejne/m2yTztWvfKTIZpM.html
If cuneiform is the oldest written language in the world then how come it doesn't use words or an alphabet? How does someone distinguish verbal words from wedged shapes?
@adamc1966
Жыл бұрын
Can you read music? How do you put sounds on a sheet of paper??
@ashlynlarsen
Жыл бұрын
Cuneiform looks easier to learn then Arabic😅
@alexandergalitevstudentfvh8696
Жыл бұрын
you must be joking.
@barrymoore4470
Жыл бұрын
Cuneiform is a system of writing, a means of encoding language, and not a language in itself. It was first developed to graphically represent the Sumerian language, but later was adapted to graphically express Akkadian, Hurrian, and Hittite, among yet other languages--the video touches on this.
@Horemakhet_
Жыл бұрын
@Barry Moore Where can you find the archeological evidence of an ancient encoded sumerian language? What were the previous languages that existed prior to this form of written language?
Yu from China became Lu to the Celts and Norse.
can we please get more videos?
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
3 жыл бұрын
Hi! We are publishing new videos every Tuesday and Friday!
ausome video
Imagine if people kept using that writing style for eternity
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
It would be interesting, right? Thanks for watching! 🙂
@barrymoore4470
Жыл бұрын
Dried and baked clay has proven much more durable than most other material supports for writing (papyrus, parchment, and paper, among other examples), so continuing to use this medium as a primary material for writing (not necessarily cuneiform) would actually be quite sensible.
The great flood was not a myth!
@TheConservative2
Жыл бұрын
Interesting how secularists immediately tag biblical stories of true history as “myths” just to silent debate on the subject while continuing with their supposed knowledge of the past purely based on their own biased interpretations of factual discoveries.
@alexandergalitevstudentfvh8696
Жыл бұрын
yes it was. ever since it was thought up. it always has and will be a myth.
Of course author Zacharia Sitchin wrote a number of books based on his interpretation of some of the ancient - decoded cuneiform tablets found scattered in the Sumer region of modern day Iraq. It would seem a race labelled Annanakai from another world colonised planet Earth many thousands of years ago. This race of highly evolved peoples taught their created peoples to write & read cuneiform script. According to these tablets which told of the creation of mankind in great detail - as we know it. Long, interesting and controversial account of how we came to be on this planet. Many parallels with the biblical narrative but less supernaturally uncovered. "The Lost Book of Enki" by Z. Sitchin is an interesting start to many more of his interesting books.
@serpentines6356
2 жыл бұрын
Humans have always been quite imaginative.
@enkilugal3282
2 жыл бұрын
My hope is that all of Zecharia Sitchin's books are someday required reading in K-12 school system. "The Lost Book of ENKI" is a wonderful book. It's a great starter book for Sitchin's collection. The Anunnaki were not imaginative beings as some people today suggest. These Anunnaki haters can't get past the brainwashed minds to understand humanities true history. I've written a new religion called ENKI, that maybe in 500 years from now will overtake a lot of the major religions of today. There are nine tenets of ENKI religion. 1) Love is the key to being 2) Show compassion for all Life 3) Our thoughts, both positive and negative, do affect the universe as a whole 4) We exist to find the fundamental structure and order of the universe 5) Gain knowledge to explore the universe and exchange knowledge with extraterrestrial species 6) All Life are the eyes, voice and consciousness of the universe 7) Live life in harmony with nature 8) The processes of nature cannot be evil 9) All Life are born and live till death with equal rights There are no "thou shall not..." statements in ENKI. Humanity has self-realization of what is right and wrong. There is no omnipotent GOD that lives in the sky just as there is no Satan living beneath our feet. These beings were invented by our ancestors after the Anunnaki left earth for the purpose of controlling humanity; well, that was the plan.
I want that shirt is that Ashurnasirpal
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
2 жыл бұрын
Hey Melvin, this shirt is of the Assyrian Lamassu which you can find on our store worldhistory.store/#!/
In context to the time thought taught perhaps the people of that time only constructed their interactions and understanding of others as weigh or cast, in other words everyone and thing wants my energy without pay me for my life.
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
👍🏾
🙏🏻
make a telegram plss😄😄
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
😆
The video is really good but sanskrit is older than cuneiform
@alexandergalitevstudentfvh8696
Жыл бұрын
bullshit.
@barrymoore4470
Жыл бұрын
Cuneiform writing is attested as early as the close of the fourth millennium before Christ. The earliest witness to Sanskrit is the Rg Veda, the oldest hymns of which are dated to the middle of the second millennium before Christ. Hence, cuneiform writing is demonstrably older than the earliest evidence for Sanskrit.
Too bad you are so anti-Biblical. Not all scholars agree on which is older and you should do a better job of explaining that not all academia agrees with your views.
@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia
Жыл бұрын
We're not anti-Biblical at all. Sorry you feel that way.
@Sami.Mohammad754
11 ай бұрын
U r following the wrong religion 😅 Real religion is Islam ☪️ ❤