Editing Cuneiform (section)

===Archaic cuneiform (c. 2900 BC)===
{{Further|Liste der archaischen Keilschriftzeichen}}
[[File:Cuneiform pictographic signs (vertical).jpg|thumb|Early pictographic signs in archaic cuneiform, used vertically before {{cx|2300 BC}}.<ref name="auto4">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |page=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n28 14]|url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref>]]
The first inscribed tablets were purely pictographic, which makes it technically difficult to know in which language they were written. Different languages have been proposed, though usually Sumerian is assumed.<ref>Monaco, Salvatore F. "PROTO-CUNEIFORM AND SUMERIANS." Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, vol. 87, no. 1/4, 2014, pp. 277–282</ref> Later tablets dating after {{cx|2900 BC}} start to use syllabic elements, which clearly show a language structure typical of the [[agglutination|agglutinative]] [[Sumerian language]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |page=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n12 12] |url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref> The first tablets using syllabic elements date to the Early Dynastic I–II periods {{cx|2800 BC}}, and they are agreed to be clearly in Sumerian.<ref name="CW11">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |pages=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n11 11]-12 |url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref>

This is the time when some pictographic element started to be used for their phonetic value, permitting the recording of abstract ideas or personal names.<ref name="CW11"/> Many pictographs began to lose their original function, and a given sign could have various meanings depending on context. The sign inventory was reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs, and writing became increasingly [[phonological]]. Determinative signs were re-introduced to avoid ambiguity. Cuneiform writing proper thus arises from the more primitive system of pictographs at about that time, labeled the [[Early Bronze Age II]] epoch by historians.

The earliest known Sumerian king, whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets, is [[Enmebaragesi]] of Kish (fl.&nbsp;{{cx|2600 BC}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |page=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n13 13]|url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref> Surviving records became less fragmentary for following reigns and by the arrival of Sargon, it had become standard practice for each major city-state to date documents by year-names, commemorating the exploits of its king.
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<gallery widths="200" heights="200" perrow="4">
File:Precuneiform tablet-AO 29561-IMG 9151-gradient.jpg|A proto-cuneiform tablet, end of the 4th millennium BC
File:Archaic cuneiform tablet E.A. Hoffman.jpg|A proto-cuneiform tablet, [[Jemdet Nasr period]], {{cx|3100–2900 BC}}
File:Cuneiform tablet- administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars MET DT847.jpg|A proto-cuneiform tablet, [[Jemdet Nasr period]], c.&nbsp;3100–2900&nbsp;BC. A dog on a leash is visible in the background of the lower panel.<ref>{{cite web|title=Proto-cuneiform tablet|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/329081|website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>
File:Blau Monument British Museum 86260.jpg|The [[Blau Monuments]] combine proto-cuneiform characters and illustrations, 3100–2700&nbsp;BC. British Museum. 
File:Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh.jpg|The newly discovered Tablet V of the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]]. It dates back to the old Babylonian period, 2003–1595&nbsp;BC, and is currently housed in the [[Sulaymaniyah Museum]], [[Kurdistan Region]], Iraq.
</gallery>

====Cuneiforms and hieroglyphs====
[[Geoffrey Sampson]] stated that [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] "came into existence a little after [[Sumerian script]], and, probably, [were] invented under the influence of the latter",<ref name=":12" /> and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia".<ref name=":12" /><ref>Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, et al., The Cambridge Ancient History (3rd ed. 1970) pp. 43–44.</ref> There are many instances of [[Egypt-Mesopotamia relations]] at the time of the invention of writing, and standard reconstructions of the [[development of writing]] generally place the development of the Sumerian [[proto-cuneiform]] script before the development of Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the suggestion the former influenced the latter.<ref name="The Times Atlas of World History">{{cite book |last1=Barraclough |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Stone |first2=Norman |title=The Times Atlas of World History |date=1989 |publisher=Hammond |isbn=978-0-7230-0304-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780723003045/page/53 53] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780723003045 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Given the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing, "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt".<ref name=":12" />