7/25/2019 Cuneiform Introduction
1/1
Cuneiform script is one of the earliest systems of writing,
distinguished by itswedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by
means of a blunt reed for a stylus.The name cuneiform itself simply
means "wedge shaped", from the Latin cuneus "wedge" and forma
"shape."
For Berossos, and many other Babylonian and Assyrian scholars,
the cuneiform writing system was not a human creation, but a gift
of the gods. The cuneiform tradition makes explicit that all
physical abnormalities, growths, divisions, and holes observed on
the liver (and other organs) were written messages from the gods.
Just as they read cuneiform signs on clay tablets, the extispicy
priests readcuneiform signs among the portentous marks found in
animal entrails. Moreover, anumber of omen compendia highlight the
ancient perception of the liver as a tablet on which the gods
literally wrote text using cuneiform signs.
The Sumerian mul star (or mul-an, heavenly star) can refer both
to a star in the skand to a cuneiform sign on a tablet. The
metaphor of the "heavenly writing" related the constellations to
cuneiform signs from which one could read and derivemeaning, and
thus expressed the idea that written messages were encoded in
celestial phenomena.
The cuneiform tradition makes explicit that all physical
abnormalities, growths,divisions, and holes observed on the liver
(and other organs) were written messages from the gods,... Just as
they read cuneiform signs on clay tablets, the extispicy priests
read cuneiform signs among the portentous marks found in
animalentrails.
A number of omen compendia highlight the ancient perception of
the liver as a tablet on which the gods literally wrote text using
cuneiform signs.
M. Roaf and A. Zgoll note that Sumerian mul star (or mul-an,
heavenly star) can reboth to a star in the sky and to a cuneiform
sign on a tablet.
The metaphor of the heavenly writing therefore related the
constellations to cun
eiform signs from which one could read and derive meaning, and
thus expressed the idea that written messages were encoded in
celestial phenomena.
