Ancient cylinder seals show unexpected origins of human writing system
Scientists found that writing started earlier than previously known - with 6000-year-old cylinder seals used by ancient accountants. These findings change our understanding of how humans began to write down their thoughts
Recent research shows that humans started writing way earlier than we thought (the first known writing-system wasnt Sumerian cuneiform after all). A team of scientists found special cylinder-shaped objects that ancient book-keepers used about 6000 years ago
These clay tubes had unique marks that later became real writing: they showed pictures of wine-jars buildings and other stuff. Prof Silvia Ferrara from Bologna University explains how ancient people used these cylinders to track their trade deals - they just rolled them on clay tablets to make prints
The research focused on Uruk (an old-time mega-city that had like 40000 people living there and 80000 more nearby); it was the biggest city in the world back then. The place has some cool history: its where the famous Gilgamesh lived and its probably the same as biblical Erech city that Noahʼs great-grandson built
Scientists found that the marks on seals were actually connected to early writing symbols; these things helped people keep track of cloth and jar shipping between different places. The cool part is that temples were doing most of this trading business - using both seals and tablets to write stuff down
The whole thing shows how smart ancient people were: they made a big jump from just drawing pictures to actually writing things down. This research (published in Antiquity journal) helps scientists understand old symbols better; now they can decode more ancient texts and learn what all those seal pictures meant
