Mesopotamia
3. Sumerian
3.2. Culture and writing
The first pictographic writing appeared around 3,500 BC. It consisted of simple pictures. The pictures were later simplified into a system of wedge-shaped symbols as they used clay tablets as writing material. The characters were made by pressing a reed stylus with triangular shape onto a wet clay tablet. This system of writing is called cuneiform script. (cuneus is the Latin for wedge)
90% of all written materials found in Mesopotamia are to do with business and administration. Literacy was highly praised and so the temple schools of writing, reading, and counting appeared. Clay tablets were stored in libraries. Some of them were discovered (the biggest in Nineveh) and thanks to them we can learn a lot about Mesopotamian daily life.
The first literature written at that period was the Epic of Gilgamesh and Enkidu where stories about life in Sumer and its different cities was explained. It also gave us an idea about social structure and religion was practiced. The first tablets also mentioned the Deluge and how humans were created.
