It’s important to use the right words when writing about writing.

Scholars studying the history of it distinguish between pre-writing symbols used to mark objects and more precise marks that establish an exact correspondence between sign and sound; script and language are not the same thing.

A new study in Antiquities illustrates the transition from printed symbol to written word — a metamorphosis that lead author Silvia Ferrara, a philology researcher from the University of Bologna calls “fuzzy.”

“We should not assume that writing is the result of a set of scribes sitting round a table and creating the signs together,” says Ferrara. “It is a complicated, and arguably gradual, phenomenon and it is difficult to set a zero point in time in which the invention took place.”

In Between Symbols and Language

For this study, researchers started 6,000 years ago, in the Mesopotamian city of Uruk, which is located in what is now Iraq. Uruk was a major trade hub, reaching as far as southwestern Iran to southeastern Turkey.

To track the flow of and payment for goods, tradespeople then used cylinders with designs engraved upon them. Think of them as an early version of a rubber stamp — but one that rolled across a wet clay tablet rather than pounded onto a paper surface.

Scholars then tried to find as many matches as they could between images on the cylinders and an early or proto version of cuneiform. The proto version lies in that fuzzy area between symbol and language. Unlike cuneiform, only about half of proto cuneiform symbols have been deciphered so far.

“The cuneiform writing system, which is slightly later than proto, is fully deciphered, we can read it,” says Ferrara. “It records the Sumerian language.”

Read More: Ancient Humans’ First Written Words Are 20000 Years Old

The Invention of Writing

The researchers looked for — and found — correlations between many seals and proto cuneiform signs. For instance, they found proto cuneiform matches with seal images of things like linen and pottery. Those matches essentially establish a direct link between the cylinder seal system and the invention of writing.

“The earliest invention of writing in the world needs to be studied much better,” says Ferrara. “Seals have played a less marginal role in creating the signs than we thought.”

Or, in a few words: seals are significant.

Read More: How Humans Invented Writing — Four Different Times

Article Sources

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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.