#cuneiformwriting

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Large Ghandhara plaque Beautiful scene Pakistan 3rd-4th century Previously sold #ancient #ancienthistory  #ancientcivilizationn #ancientknowledge #ancientcivilizations #ancientart #ancientartifacts  #ancientartifacts  #mirandsonsartgallery  #ancientarts #ancientneareast #ancienttechnology #cuneiform  #cuneiformwriting  #sumarian  #sumarianrecords  #mesopotamia  #ancientrome  #ancientroman #ancientromans  #ancientromanglass #ancientceramics  #ancientislamicart https://www.instagram.com/p/CUzGCq8v6m8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[renehw]

An alabaster fragment of a Mesopotamian vase with cuneiform writing on it (22nd century BC), from @allardpierson in Amsterdam. The writing can be translated as “Shar-Kali-Sharri, king of [the country of] Akkad”. The symbols in the left part of the inscription mean “Agade-ki” (Country of Akkad). The symbols on the right are the name of the Akkadian king Shar-Kali-Sharri (r. circa 2217-2193 BC), the star symbol in the top right corner is a silent (not pronounced) sign to signify divine/divinity and comes from the Sumerian word for god/goddess. Shar-Kali-Sharri was one of the last kings of the Akkadian Empire, that dominated much of Mesopotamia from the late 24th century BC until the mid-22nd century BC. #allardpiersonmuseum #allardpierson #amsterdam #museum #archaeology #archeology #archeologie #alabaster #akkad #akkadian #akkadianempire #mesopotamia #ancient #art #ancientart #cuneiform #cuneiformwriting #writing #king #history #geschiedenis (bij Allard Pierson Museum) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHK-hI8HPh2/?igshid=ucfimgeuymtk

[ancienttextmoderntablet]

Cuneiform Incision Technique

www.etsy.com/shop/AncientTextModTablet

Instagram: ancienttextmodernscribe

https://upenn.academia.edu/JeremiahPeterson

              Until very recently, even though the discipline has been around since the late 1800’s, cuneiformists have devoted little time to understanding the physical process of writing cuneiform itself. This isn’t quite the oversight it sounds like: the biggest task of the cuneiformist is learning how to read the tablets and then how to make sense of them and extract further information from texts about the hosting culture. Assyriology is devoted primarily to a gargantuan but essentially passive task: textual interpretation. However, in recent years scholars have devoted specific attention to the method by which cuneiform signs were incised and the order in which the wedges of a given scribe were incised, a critical factor in making legible signs. I recommend in particular these excellent recent scholarly articles by Michelle Cammarosano, Armando Bramanti, and Jon Taylor, who make several key advancements. There is also a wonderful article by Jon Taylor and Caroline Cartwright that reconsiders the use of clay as a writing material as it was encountered in ancient Iraq, which debunks a number of modern misconceptions.

https://www.academia.edu/12047738/The_Cuneiform_Stylus

https://www.academia.edu/23308934/Cuneiform_Writing_Techniques_in_the_Ancient_Near_East

http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdln/php/single.php?id=65

https://www.academia.edu/21404629/Wedge_Order_in_Cuneiform_a_Preliminary_Survey

https://www.academia.edu/2225793/The_making_and_re-making_of_clay_tablets

           We have very few examples of cuneiform styli and only a few examples of the artistic depiction of scribes (the latter of which could be stylized to an extent that obscured actual practice). There is also little reason to assume that cuneiform styli were made exactly the same way across periods and locales, and possibly even from scribe to scribe. Most likely, they were predominantly made of reed: the Sumerian word for stylus is tellingly gi-dub-ba, literally “reed of a tablet.” I have found that at least for reproducing the cuneiform script of the period I specialize in (the Old Babylonian period, the first part of the second millennium BCE), the key feature of a stylus is a point formed by edges meeting at roughly ninety degree angles. To date, I have mostly used low density woods like poplar for my styluses, which I’ve made from the dowelling you can get at most hardware and hobby stores. This was probably not the favored material in ancient Mesopotamia, because they do absorb moisture out of the clay, which makes clay more likely to stick to it. However, if you write on clay that has the proper level of moisture in it (more on that important detail below), this doesn’t generally happen and the material is adequate. I’ve also tried metal, which we know was used in some instances in antiquity. I find it to be too heavy in the hand for easy use. 

(A few styli that I use. There nothing magical about the exact shape of these, but they work for me.) 

           We do not know the exact ancient technique of clay incision: it is never explained in any detail in any known text. A pretty good general picture, however, can be obtained by analyzing the cuneiform signs themselves. Cuneiform wedges are generally made by pushing the tip of a stylus into the clay and then rolled to widen the angle of the incision to varying degrees, a subtle but critical step. Any video you see attempting to replicate cuneiform writing simply by pushing the tip of a stylus into the clay and then pulling it back again is missing a critical step.   

           A fair amount of thought has been put into how the stylus was held. I think it is unlikely that there was one uniform holding position. There are some Sumerian texts that describe life in a scribal school (these are called edubba’a texts: the e2-dub-ba-a was a type of scribal school). In two of these texts, there are a number of proper student behaviors listed. To the best of my knowledge (there is a very badly preserved tablet in Oslo of a text called the “Scribal Regulations” that awaits publication), the proper holding of the stylus is not mentioned among them. We have a couple of passages that talk about the scribal goddess Nisaba making a scribe’s hand beautiful (and ancient handwriting ranges in appearance from rather hideous to gorgeous), but nothing in those passages can be taken as evidence of a specific rigid technique.

Because I write left-handed, a few people in my field have insisted in response to my videos that cuneiform had to be written right-handed. I look at the phenomenon of modern two-dimensional writing with a pen or pencil as a likely parallel. People hold a pen or pencil many different ways, and write with their right or left hand, depending on their individual neurological configuration (despite the occasional misguided attempts to kill off left-handedness). In many instances, you can recognize distinct differences in scribal handwriting among tablets found at the same place and approximate time. This is a pretty good indication that individual technique could vary considerably. There is a fair amount of motor skill and planning involved with writing, even two-dimensional writing, which is less complex. It’s just not that easy of an action to rigidly standardize.

(A manuscript of the so-called “Scribal Regulations” from Old Babylonian Nippur)

           I basically use two different techniques to incise cuneiform. These work best for me: I’m not really trying to say that these are necessarily “correct,” which would be a loaded statement in the best of circumstances. Either I move the tablet to make my incisions or I move the stylus. Here are videos of both techniques. 

Here’s the technique that rotates the tablet:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL0f3Kq1He4

           I suspect that this circular form of tablet, which was used most often by beginning scribal students, was shaped this way precisely to make rotating the tablet easier so a beginning student could learn to write cuneiform signs using the rotation technique. Notice that I don’t have to move the stylus very much, except to make the so-called “oblique” wedge. I find that this technique, which I use most often, allows me to place the wedges exactly where I want them and to furnish them with the exact depth I want. However, it is not terribly efficient. With non-circular rectangular tablets that you can easily hold in the hand, this method is a little clumsy, but still doable. With larger tablets, it becomes extremely inconvenient to rotate a tablet while holding it in your hands: you basically have to use a rotating surface or move around yourself.

           Here’s the technique that leaves the tablet in one place. I use the short sides of the flat end of my stylus to make the bottom part of the wedge. You’ll notice in terms of amount of overall movement, it’s more efficient.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE_j8IJ_Gdo

           This is probably the most reflective of how most cuneiform was typically written.  However, I personally have trouble with it. You can’t see the wedge as it is made as well as with the tablet rotation technique. My incision angles are less exact. So the handwriting generally doesn’t look as good.

           Another widespread misconception about cuneiform writing is the level of moisture in the clay needed to incise it. There is a modern tendency to think that the clay had to be much wetter than it actually needed to be in order to incise it. But there is a huge problem with using clay that is too wet. Significantly wet clay is extremely susceptible to distortion simply by handling it. The cuneiform wedges get distorted and the overall shape of the tablet is easily compromised when the clay is too wet. If the tablet is sufficient large, you cannot write one side and then turn it around and write on the other side without ruining it simply by gravity. It is certainly true that there are a number of ancient tablets that have been compromised by being incised and handled when they were too wet. This is most typically seen with tablets made by beginning students. But generally speaking, the most beautifully shaped and incised tablets do not exhibit signs of being handled when they were too wet.  

           If the clay has the proper amount of moisture in it, however, it can be incised easily while retaining its overall shape despite handling. In this state, the clay does not stick to the stylus. When the clay is stiffer, the wedges can be written close to each other and cross each other without ruining the other wedges, and smaller signs can be incised. However, this leaves you a smaller amount of time to write the tablet before it dries out too much to be effectively written: the drier the clay gets, the more effort require to make an incision increases sharply, until eventually you can’t make an impression at all that doesn’t fracture the clay. You can arrest the process a bit with a wet cloth and/or by sealing the clay’s surface with saran wrap.

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