How to Read a Sumerian Text

Cuneiform inscription on a clay tablet fragment

The Sumerians of Mesopotamia invented the earliest known writing system, around 3500 B.C. Over the next millennium, the simple set of pictographs evolved into a standardized system of wedge-shaped signs known as cuneiform. Many peoples of the ancient Near East -- including Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Elamites and Canaanites -- adopted cuneiform writing. Cuneiform inscribed on clay tablets, bricks and stone was used to record business transactions, literature, astronomical calculations, mathematics, religious rituals, hymns and law. The work of deciphering ancient cuneiform texts began in the mid-19th century and is continued by university and museum scholars today.

Instructions

Learning Cuneiform Online

1. Read an introduction to ancient Mesopotamia and the importance of writing in the development of civilization. Some good resources created for teachers are available on the National Endowment for the Humanities' EDSITEment! and University of Chicago websites.

2. Learn about cuneiform then take the challenge on the British Museum's interactive exploration of Mesopotamia. Write your name in cuneiform and download a phonetic cuneiform alphabet on The University of Pennsylvania website.

3. Look at cuneiform inscriptions. The Science Museum of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota are together studying the cuneiform collections of both institutions. The museum's website provides cuneiform images and translations, along with information about the history and uses of cuneiform.

4. Practice with flashcards. Identifying the cuneiform signs and memorizing their meaning or sound is a good way to learn how to read a Sumerian text. You can use the free set of 156 flashcards "Cuneiform Signs" available on the Quizlet website.

5. Look at more cuneiform inscriptions. The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Max Planck Society for the History of Science, Berlin, has cataloged more than 246,000 cuneiform documents in the collections of institutions around the world. Resources and tools, documentation and links to the websites of partner institutions supplement the catalog information and images.

6. Find out how Sumerians learned how to write by watching a video on the UCLA website.

Tips & Warnings

• The word cuneiform comes from the Latin word cuneus, which means "wedge."

References

• University of Chicago: Mesopotamia: This History, Our History
• NEH: EDSITEment!: The Cuneiform Writing System in Ancient Mesopotamia: Emergence and Evolution

Resources

• Quizlet: Cuneiform Signs Flashcards
• Science Museum of Minnesota: Sumer During the Ur III Period
• The British Museum: Mesopotamia
• University of Pennsylvania: Write Like a Babylonian
• University of Pennsylvania: Phonetic Cuneiform Alphabet
• UCLA: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative