Recently Yahoo News on-line picked up the following:
World’s oldest writing system may have its origins in
mysterious, undeciphered symbols (1/2)
Ashley Strickland, CNN
Thu, November 7, 2024 at 12:26 a.m. GMT+8·7 min read
Researchers have uncovered links between the precursor to the world’s oldest writing system and the mysterious, intricate designs left behind by engraved cylindrical seals that were rolled across clay tablets about 6,000 years ago.
Scholars consider cuneiform the first writing system, and humans used its wedge-shaped characters to inscribe ancient languages such as Sumerian on clay tablets beginning around 3400 BC. The writing system is thought to have originated from Mesopotamia, the region where the world’s earliest known civilization developed that’s now modern-day Iraq.
Before cuneiform, however, there was an archaic script using abstract pictographic signs called proto-cuneiform. It first appeared around 3350 to 3000 BC in the city of Uruk, in modern southern Iraq.
But the origins of proto-cuneiform’s emergence have been murky, and many of its symbols remain undeciphered.
A study detailing the similarities was published Tuesday in the journal Antiquity.
The results of the analysis could change the way scholars understand how writing was invented, and what it suggests about the advancements of ancient civilizations that developed technologies such as accounting and writing thousands of years ago.
From accounting to writing
Uruk, now known as Warka, was one of the earliest cities to
arise in Mesopotamia, and it served as a center of cultural influence that
could be traced from what is now southwest Iran to southeast Turkey.
The ancient metropolis is where cylinder seals were invented and used for administrative purposes.
Seal-cutters engraved designs on the cylinders, which could then be rolled across wet clay to transfer the motifs. A preliterate society widely used the seals in an early accounting system that helped track the production, storage and movement of crops and textiles. The motifs on the seals acted as an early form of branding to identify commodities, according to the study authors.
In addition to the seals, the accounting systems, which developed during the fourth millennium BC, also physically documented the trade of goods using tags, numerical tablets, tokens and clay balls called bullae.
Researchers have long thought that proto-cuneiform developed from these early accounting methods, but there was no definitive link to show how the transition occurred. And unlike the cylinder seals, the hundreds of iconographic signs attributed to proto-cuneiform have only ever been found on tablets in southern Iraq.
“The close relationship between ancient sealing and the invention of writing in southwest Asia has long been (recognized), but the relationship between specific seal images and sign shapes has hardly been explored,” Ferrara said. “This was our starting question: Did seal imagery contribute significantly to the invention of signs in the first writing in the region?”
The team systematically compared motifs from the cylinder seals with proto-cuneiform pictographs to see whether any of them correlated in both shape and meaning. The researchers anticipated making marginal and indirect connections, but instead they identified seal images that appeared to directly transform into proto-cuneiform signs, suggesting that seals played a role in the developments that led to the birth of the first writing system, Ferrara said.
The images with the strongest connection related to the transport of jars and cloth, said lead study author Kathryn Kelley, a research fellow in the department of classical philology and Italian studies at the University of Bologna. The symbols showed images of fringed textiles and vessels being carried in nets, many of which are moving toward building facades. The exchanges of these items occurred between or within different cities and likely involved various temples, so the seals and tablets helped document the transactions, according to the study authors.
“We focused on seal imagery that originated before the invention of writing, while continuing to develop into the proto-literate period,” said Kelley and study coauthor Mattia Cartolano, research fellow at the University of Bologna, in a joint statement. “This approach allowed us to identify a series of designs related to the transport of textiles and pottery, which later evolved into corresponding proto-cuneiform signs.”
(to be continued)
Translation
世界上最古老的書寫系統可能起源於神秘、未破解的符號
(1/2)
研究人員發現了世界上最古老書寫系統的前身, 與留下在大約 6,000 年前轆在泥板上的封印的神秘而複雜的雕刻圓柱形設計之間的聯繫。
學者認為楔形文字是第一個書寫系統，從公元前 3,400 年左右開始，人類就用楔形文字在泥板上刻下了蘇美語等古代語言。這種書寫系統被認為起源於美索不達米亞，該地區是世界上已知最早文明發展的地區，即現在的伊拉克。
然而，在楔形文字之前，有一種使用抽象象形符號的古老文字，稱為原始楔形文字。它於公元前 3,350 年至 3,000 年左右首次出現在現代伊拉克南部的Uruk市。
但原始楔形文字出現的起源一直很模糊，它的許多符號仍未被破解。
研究人員對原始楔形文字符號進行了仔細分析，當他們研究公元前 4,400 年Uruk發明的圓柱印章,及刻於軟粘土上印製圖案時，他們驚訝地發現了相似之處。有些符號不僅完全吻合，而且在關乎古代交易和貿易上, 它們似乎也傳達了相同的含義。
週二在《古代》雜誌上發表了一項詳細描述這些相似之處的研究。
研究共同作者、Bologna大學古典語言學和義大利研究系教授Silvia Ferrara 表示：「我們的研究結果表明，刻在圓柱形印章上的圖案與伊拉克南部原始楔形文字的發展直接相關」。 「它們還展示了最初與這些設計相關的含義是如何溶合到書寫系統中」。
分析結果可能會改變學者理解書寫是如何發明的，以及它啟示幾千年前開發出會計和書寫等技術的古代文明的進步。
從會計到書寫
Uruk，現在被稱為Warka，是美索不達米亞最早出現的城市之一，它是文化影響力的中心，其影響範圍可以追溯到現在的伊朗西南部到土耳其東南部。
這座古老的大都市是發明圓柱形印章和用它於行政目的的地方。
篆刻師在圓柱體上雕刻圖案，然後將其在濕粘土上滾動以印出圖案。文字出現之前的社會在早期的會計系統中廣泛使用印章，幫助追蹤農作物和紡織品的生產、儲存和移動。研究作者表示，印章上的圖案是早期的方式去識別商品的品牌。
除了印章之外，公元前四千年發展的會計系統還使用標籤、數字板、代幣和稱為「bullae」的黏土球來實際記錄貨物交易。
研究人員長期以來一直認為原始楔形文字是從這些早期的會計方法發展而來的，但沒有明確的聯繫來顯示這進化是如何發生的。與圓印章不同的是，數百個原始楔形文字的圖像符號僅在伊拉克南部的石碑上發現。
Ferrara說： “古代印章與西南亞文字發明之間的密切關係早已被人們(承認)，但具體的印章圖像與符號形狀之間的關係卻幾乎沒有被探索過。” “這是我們第一個問題：印章圖像對該地區第一個文字中的符號的發明有重大貢獻嗎？”
研究小組系統地將圓柱體印章的圖案與原始楔形文象形字進行比較，看看它們在形狀和意義上是否存在相關性。Ferrara說，研究人員預計會建立少量和間接的聯繫，但相反，他們發現了似乎直接轉變為原始楔形文字符號的印章圖像，這表明印章在導致第一個書寫系統誕生的發展中發揮了作用。
該研究的主要作者、Bologna大學古典語言學和義大利研究系研究員Kathryn
Kelley表示，有最緊密聯繫的圖像是與罐子和布料的運輸有關。這些符號顯示了流蘇紡織品和容器用網子運送的圖像，其中許多正在移向建築物外牆。研究作者表示，這些物品的交換發生在不同城市之間或城市內部，並可能涉及不同的寺廟，因此印章和石板有助於記錄交易。
Kelley和研究合著者, 即Bologna大學研究員Mattia Cartolano在聯合聲明中表示: 「我們關注的是起源於文字發明之前的印章圖像，同時繼續發展到原始文字時期」。 「這種方法使我們能夠識別出一系列與紡織品和陶器運輸相關的設計，這些設計後來演變成相應的原始楔形文字符號」。
（待續）
Note:
1. Cuneiform
(楔形文字，又名釘頭字或箭頭字) is
a logo-syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the
Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until
the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for
the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions which form their signs. Cuneiform
is the earliest known writing system and was originally developed to write the
Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Over the course of its
history, cuneiform was adapted to write several languages in addition to
Sumerian. (Wikipedia)
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