1. The Sumerian Account of the Invention of Writing -- 2. Time and Place of the Invention -- 3. Received Ideas: The Pictographic Origins of Cuneiform Writing -- 4. Received Ideas: The Origin of ...

This particular development produced what scholars call cuneiform, taken from the Latin cuneus, meaning "wedge." At first, writing was used as a practical tool primarily for administration, accounting ...

A new study reveals ancient Sumerians credited gods (not humans) with inventing writing, challenging decades of scholarly consensus.

Miguel Civil, the world’s leading expert in the earliest known written language, died on Jan. 13 at age 92. The scholar at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute was described as understanding ...

Writing, laws, cities, and science—these and other innovations were devised by the enterprising peoples living in Sumer, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, some 5,000 years ago. High ...