Mesopotamian stone cylinder seals provide clues about world's earliest form of writing

System developed in now modern-day Iraq about 3,500 BC

Example of a cylinder seal (left) and its design imprinted onto clay (right). Photo: Musée du Louvre

The origins of writing in Mesopotamia lie in images imprinted on ancient stone cylinder seals, a study has found.

The world’s earliest writing system is believed to have emerged in the region, now modern-day Iraq, about 3,500 BC. Known as cuneiform, the script represented both a sound and a meaning. But it was predated by something known as proto-cuneiform, which was made up of hundreds of pictograms.

Italian researchers have now discovered an association between proto-cuneiform and even older stone images engraved on ancient cylinder seals in the city of Uruk, in about 3000 BC. One of the first cities in Mesopotamia, it exerted influence over a large region, stretching from south-west Iran to south-east Turkey.

Cylinder seals were used there starting in the mid-fourth millennium BC as part of an accounting system to track the production, storage and transport of various consumer goods, particularly agricultural and textile products.

The researchers say the images used on the stone seals provide insights into the birth of writing. Silvia Ferrara, professor in the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna and lead researcher told The National the images on the seals were used in close association with the first writing. But there is a lot they did not know about the relationship between the two.

When they began researching this, the researchers expected to find some shared shapes. But they discovered direct parallels between late prehistoric seals and proto-cuneiform signs, Prof Ferrara said.

Images of vessels being carried in nets, fringed textiles and architectural elements appeared in both. “We can also observe, as expected, that earlier prehistoric seal motifs are not nearly as similar in shape to the proto-cuneiform icons as the late prehistoric ones, so we can begin to get a sense of the time frame for the evolution of symbol traditions that influenced the invention of writing,” she told The National.

The seals seem to bridge the gap between the way symbols were used before and after the invention of writing, she said. “In many other cases, parallels between signs and seals are evident though their significance has not been explored. Our survey suggests that the use of seals may have helped create the mindsets that led to the invention of the writing system.”

Prof Ferrara said: “It has long been a question of interest what social, technological, and cognitive conditions encouraged the idea to code information, including language, in the form of writing.

“For Mesopotamia, the jury is still out on how much language is actually encoded in the earliest cuneiform – they were accountant’s ledgers. However, it led to 'true' writing within a few centuries, so the invention of proto-cuneiform is a watershed. Seeing that proto-cuneiform built on prehistoric symbol systems, or seal motifs, in important ways gives us a better understanding of the steps that can lead to writing.”

The study was published in Antiquity.

For decades, historians have believed that the Sumerians' mastery of irrigation – or the ability to have regular and stable access to water – moved them from subsistence towards the extraordinary feats they are known for; writing, temple complexes, grouping into cities. However, a study from 2022 suggested that irrigation was not the cause of these changes after all. They suspect that temples and administrative buildings allowed the powers ascribed to the gods to reside in one site, which was embedded into a larger social and political structure.