1. The World’s First Writing System
Cuneiform:
The World’s First Writing System

2. Pictograph
Definition: A picture that stands for a word or idea; picture writing.
Why did the Sumerians invent writing?
Merchants and traders needed a way to keep track of
what they bought and sold.
One of the first pictographs was for the grain, barley.

3. Barley
What is the relationship between the way our word “barley” looks and barley itself?
How do we know that the symbols which make up the word represent grain?

4. Cuneiform Definition: Wedge-shaped characters made with a reed stylus.
The Sumerians used a sharpened reed, called a stylus,
to draw pictures on clay.

5. Around 2500 B.C., writers had simplified their symbols.
They no longer looked like pictures and were used to
represent sounds.

6. Cuneiform consisted of 600 symbols.
People could now easily express themselves through writing. They began keeping records of:
wars and treaties
epic stories and poems (Story of Gilgamesh)
astronomy
F. A new job was created called a scribe- A professional
writer or record-keeper whose job was to copy
documents and manuscripts.