VN November 2021

Vetnuus | November 2021 18 Sumerian cuneiform is, along with Egyptian hieroglyphics, the oldest known writing system. Its origins date back to the 4th millennium BC in the southern-most region of Ancient Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). The Sumerians were very knowledgeable about their biotic environment and took advantage of what it had to offer: reeds ( Fragmites australis ), for the production of calamus , or writing tool, and clay for the production of tablets. The term "cuneiform" comes from Latin cuneus (wedge), which is the shape left by the calamus when pressed into wet clay. These signs evolved from the so-called calculi (singular calculus ), small pieces of clay which represented specific objects during the first commercial exchanges. Many animals were depicted in this way as they were, together with agriculture, the main economic source. Figure 2 shows some of these calculi and their evolution into cuneiform signs. This writing became more complicated as time went by and new signs were added. Scribes began learning it as children at school, known as the é-dub-ba or "house of tablets", and had to memorise more than 450 signs, so it took years before they mastered it. Writing came to support a complex administrative system. We have a good example of this in the animal concentration and expedition centre at Puzriš-Dagan, now Drehem. This is the source of numerous administrative tablets on which counts of different species, their origin and destinations were recorded. Most of these animals came from tax collecting and were dispatched for sacificing in the temples of the cities. Animals are also depicted in Sumerian art, denoting an interest that goes beyond the purely economic or food-related. Given the scarcity of zoo-archaeological studies and the poor state of preservation of the pieces recovered, these representations constitute an important source for their study. Literary records with proverbs and fables in which animals are assigned human characteristics (as in Aesop's fables) are preserved: magnificence to the lion, cunning to the fox or motherliness to the dog. Mythological beings such as the bird Anzu or the serpent Mususu, protagonists of epic battles, dwell on the tablets. All these creatures found their way into the Sumerian zoological classification, the oldest known to date, which I will tell you more about in the next issue. We still do not know the meaning of many of the animals hidden behind these spellings. The deciphering continues! v THE FIRSTWRITING SYSTEM Silvia Nicolás Alonso Ph.D. in Veterinary Medicine Biblical and Oriental Institute (León, Spain) Fig 1: Making of calamus from de common reed. Taken from Oxford University web. Fig 2: Some animal calculus and their evolution into cuneiform sign.