Page 51 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

The Development of Cuneiform Writing. Pictured here is the cone of Urukagina (oo-ROOK-uh-gee-nuh), an example of cuneiform writing from an early Sumerian dynasty. The inscription announces reductions in taxes. The table shows the development of writing from pictographic signs to cuneiform characters.
star
?sun over horizon
?stream
ear of barley
bull’s head
bowl
head + bowl
lower leg
dingir, an
u4, ud
a
se
gu4
nig2, ninda
ku2
du, gin, gub
god, sky
day, sun
water, seed, son
barley
ox
food, bread
to eat
to walk, to stand
Pictographic sign, ca. 3100 B.C.E.
Interpretation
Cuneiform sign, ca. 2400 B.C.E.
Cuneiform sign
ca. 700 B.C.E.
(turned through 90°)
?shrouded body
Phonetic value* lu2
Meaning man *Some signs have more than one phonetic value and some sounds are represented by more than one sign; for example, u4 means the fourth sign with the phonetic value u.
Human beings’ relationship with their gods was based on subservience; according to Sumerian myth, human beings were created to do the manual labor the gods were unwilling to do for themselves. Moreover, humans were insecure because they could never be sure what the gods would do. But humans did try to circum- vent or relieve their anxiety by discovering the inten- tions of the gods; if they could decipher the signs that foretold events, the events would be predictable, and they could act wisely.
These efforts gave rise to the arts of divination, which took a variety of forms. A common form, at least for kings and priests who could afford it, involved
killing animals, such as sheep or goats, and examining their livers or other organs. Supposedly, features seen in the organs of the sacrificed animals foretold events to come. One handbook predicted that if the animal organ had shape x, the outcome of the military cam- paign would be y. Private individuals relied on cheaper divinatory techniques. These included interpreting pat- terns of smoke from burning incense or the pattern formed when oil was poured into water.
THE CULTIVATION OF NEW ARTS AND SCIENCES The real- ization of writing’s great potential was another aspect of Mesopotamian culture. The oldest Mesopotamian
Civilization in Mesopotamia 13
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From the Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia & the Ancient Near East by Michael Roaf/Courtesy of Andromeda Oxford Limited, Oxford, England
Louvre (Herv􏰀e Lewandowski), Paris// a RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY