Writing:
The final characteristic of a civilization in a writing system. The Sumerians had two forms of writing; pictographs, and cuneiform. Pictographs were symbols that stood for real life objects, like a snake, or water. Scribes, the people who wrote/made languages, used a sharpened reed, and wet clay to write. They did this, so once the clay dried, the writing became a permanent record. Pictographs came before cuneiform. Cuneiform was more of a written language, so it was more advanced than pictographs. Scribes used a wedge-shaped stylus to etch their writing in clay tablets. At first, the sumerians had more than 2,000 symbols, but that eventually decreased down to only 700.
Cuneiform Pictograph
The final characteristic of a civilization in a writing system. The Sumerians had two forms of writing; pictographs, and cuneiform. Pictographs were symbols that stood for real life objects, like a snake, or water. Scribes, the people who wrote/made languages, used a sharpened reed, and wet clay to write. They did this, so once the clay dried, the writing became a permanent record. Pictographs came before cuneiform. Cuneiform was more of a written language, so it was more advanced than pictographs. Scribes used a wedge-shaped stylus to etch their writing in clay tablets. At first, the sumerians had more than 2,000 symbols, but that eventually decreased down to only 700.
Cuneiform Pictograph