Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:56:41.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The diffusion of the cuneiform writing system in northern Mesopotamia: The earliest archaeological evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Philippe Quenet
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The invention of writing in southern Mesopotamia at the end of the fourth millennium BC had many and long-lasting consequences. As far as the Early Bronze Age is concerned, one of the most remarkable of these consequences is that the cuneiform writing system that gradually emerged in southern Iraq during the first part of the Early Dynastic period spread to northern Syria around the mid-third millennium BC. A flourishing scribal tradition was already firmly established throughout the Syrian Jezirah and inner Syria by the advent of the Akkadian period.

It is difficult to establish the reasons and mechanisms that led the elites of northern Syria to borrow the practice of writing from their counterparts in southern Iraq. The steps in this process are even more unclear. Hence the aim of this paper is to gather material evidence that may help us shed light on those questions. As an archaeologist, I will not discuss here the content of epigraphical finds, but only their context and chronological attribution according to the chronological divisions in northern and southern Mesopotamia respectively.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , Autumn 2005 , pp. 31 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Algaze, G., 1983–1984: Private Houses and Graves at Ingharra, a Reconsideration, Mesopotamia. Rivista di Archaeologia 18–19, 135–93.Google Scholar
Algaze, G., 1989: The Uruk Expansion: Cross-Cultural Exchange Early Mesopotamian Civilization, Current Anthropology 30/5, 570–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Algaze, G., 1993: The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization. Chicago.Google Scholar
Algaze, G., D'Altroy, T., Frangipane, M., Nissen, H. J., Pittman, H., Pollock, S., Rothman, M. S., Schwartz, G. M., Stein, G. J., Wright, H. T., 1998: School of American Research Advance Seminar: Mesopotamia in the Era of State Formation (March 1–5, 1998). www.science.widener.edu/ssci/mesopotamia. Web site.Google Scholar
Amiet, P., 1963: La glyptique syrienne archaïque. Notes sur la diffusion de la civilisation mésopotamienne en Syrie du nord, Syria. Revue d'Art Oriental et d'Archéologie 40, 57–83.Google Scholar
Amiet, P., 1980: La glyptique mésopotamienne archaïque (2nd edition), Paris.Google Scholar
Amiet, P., 1985: La glyptique de Mari: État de la question, Mari, Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires 4, 475–85.Google Scholar
Braun-Holzinger, E. A., 1977: Frühdynastische Beterstatuetten (Abhandlungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 19). Berlin.Google Scholar
Campbell Thompson, R., 1933: The British Museum Excavations at Nineveh 1931–32, Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 20, 71–127.Google Scholar
Coessens, B., 1989: Bent Pins in the Near East in the Third Millennium B.C., in Meyer, De and Haerink, 1989, 85–98.Google Scholar
Curvers, H. H., 1991: Bronze Age Society in the Balikh Drainage (Syria). Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Curvers, H. H. and Schwartz, G. M., 1990: Excavations at Tell al-Raqa'i: A Small Rural Site of Early Urban Northern Mesopotamia, The American Journal of Archaeology 94, 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delougaz, P., 1952: Pottery from the Diyala Region (Oriental Institute Publications 63). Chicago.Google Scholar
Delougaz, P. and Lloyd, S., 1942: Pre-Sargonid Temples in the Diyala Region (Oriental Institute Publications 53). Chicago.Google Scholar
De Meyer, L. and Haerink, E. (eds.), 1989: Archaeologia Iranica et Orientalis. Miscellanea in Honorem Louis vanden Berghe (2 vols.), Gent.Google Scholar
di Nocera, G.-M., 2000: Radiocarbon Datings from Arslantepe and Norsuntepe: The Fourth–Third Millennium Absolute Chronology in the Upper Euphrates and Transcaucasian Region, in Marro, and Hauptmann, 2000, 73–93.Google Scholar
Edzard, D. O., 1985: Le soi-disant “TAGGE” et questions annexes, Mari, Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires 4, 59–62.Google Scholar
Ehrich, R.-W. (ed.), 1992: Chronologies in Old World Archaeology (Third Edition — 2 vols.). Chicago and London.Google Scholar
Finkel, I. L., 1985: Inscriptions from Tell Brak 1984, Iraq 47, 187–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortin, M., 1988: Mission archéologique de l'Université de Laval en Syrie sur les sites de Tell 'Atij et de Gudeda (IIIe mill. av. J.-C), Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views 32/7, 103–15.Google Scholar
Fortin, M., 1989: Trois campagnes de fouilles a Tell 'Atij: Un comptoir commercial du IIIème millénaire en Syrie du Nord, Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 18, 35–55.Google Scholar
Fortin, M., 1990: Rapport préliminaire sur la seconde campagne de fouilles à Tell 'Atij et la première à Tell Gudeda (automne 1987), sur le Moyen Khabour, Syria. Revue d'art oriental et d'archéologie 67/2, 219–55.Google Scholar
Fortin, M., 1993–1994: Tall 'Atig 1987–1988, Archiv für Orientforschung 40–1, 225–8.Google Scholar
Fortin, M., 1993: Tell 'Atij, in Rouault, and Masseti-Rouault, 1993, 153–6.Google Scholar
Fujii, H. (ed.), 1981: Preliminary Report of Excavations at Gubba and Songor, al-Rafidan 2.Google Scholar
Gensheimer, T. R., 1984: The Role of Shell in Mesopotamia. Evidence of Trade/Exchange with Oman and the Indus Valley, Paléorient 10/1, 65–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, McG. (ed.), 1981: Uch Tepe I. Tell Razuk, Tell Ahmad al-Mughir, Tell Ajamat (Hamrin Report 10). Chicago and Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Görsdorf, J., 1993: Vorbericht zu den Radiokohlenstoffdatierungen aus Tall Bi'a, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 125, 61–8.Google Scholar
Hammade, H., 1994: Cylinder Seals from the Collections of the Aleppo Museum, Syrian Arab Republic. 2. Seals of Known Provenance (British Archaeological Reports. International Series 597). London.Google Scholar
Heinrich, E. and Andrae, W., 1931: Fara, Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen der D.O.G. in Fara und Abu Hatab, 1902–3. Berlin.Google Scholar
Hillen, C., 1955: The Early Development of Metal-Working in the Ancient Near East. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Hogarth, D., 1920: Hittite Seals, with Particular Reference to the Ashmolean Museum Collection. Oxford.Google Scholar
Jamieson, A. St., 1993: The Euphrates Valley and Early Bronze Age Ceramic Traditions, Abr-Nahrain, an Annual Published by the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Melbourne 31, 36–92.Google Scholar
Jean-Marie, M., 1990: Les tombeaux en pierre de Mari, Mari, Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires 6, 303–36.Google Scholar
Jean-Marie, M., 1999: Tombes et nécropoles de Mari, Mission Archéologique de Mari 5 (Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique 153). Beyrouth.Google Scholar
Kampschulte, I. and Orthmann, W., 1984: Gräber des 3. Jahrtausends vor Chr. im Syrischen Euphrattal. 1. Ausgrabungen bei Tawi 1975 and 1978 (Saarbrücken Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 38). Bonn.Google Scholar
Kerner, S. (ed.), 1990: The Near East in Antiquity I. German Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. Amman.Google Scholar
Khuera, , 1998a: Tell Chuera, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Orientalische Archäologie und Kunst, www.orientarch.uni-halle.de/chuera. Web site.Google Scholar
Khuera, , 1998b: Tell Chuera, Syrien — Fundort und Grabungsbereiche, in Khuera, 1998a, 1998/chuinfo.html#info.Google Scholar
Klein, H. and Orthmann, W., 1995: Grabungen im Bereich des Steinbau 2, in Orthmann, et al. 1995, 73 ff.Google Scholar
Kohlmeyer, K. and Strommenger, E. (eds.), 1982: Land des Baal. Syrien – Forum der Völker und Kulturen. Mainz.Google Scholar
Kohlmeyer, K. and Strommenger, E., 1995: Die Ausgrabungen in Tall Bi'a 1994 und 1995, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 127, 43–55.Google Scholar
Krebernik, M., 1990: Die Textfunde aus Tall Bi'a, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 122, 67–87.Google Scholar
Kühne, H., 1976: Die Keramik von Tell Chuera und ihre Beziehungen zu Funden aus Syrien-Palästina, der Türkei und dem Iraq. Berlin.Google Scholar
Lebeau, M., 1990: La céramique du tombeau 300 de Mari (Temple d'Ishtar), Mari, Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires 6, 349–74.Google Scholar
Lebeau, M., 2000: Stratified Archaeological Evidence and Compared Periodizations in the Syrian Jezirah during the Third Millennium B.C., in Marro, and Hauptmann, 2000, 167–92.Google Scholar
Marro, C. and Hauptmann, H. (eds.), 2000: Chronologie des pays du Caucase et de l'Euphrate aux IVe–IIIe millénaires. Actes du colloque d'Istanbul, 16–19 décembre 1998 (Varia Anatolica 11). Istanbul/Paris.Google Scholar
Martin, H. P., 1988: Fara, a Reconstruction of the Ancient Mesopotamian City of Shuruppak. Birmingham.Google Scholar
Matthiae, P., Mazzoni, S. and Scandone-Matthiae, G., 1985: Da Ebla a Damasco. Diecimile anni di archeologia in Siria, Milano.Google Scholar
Maul, S., 1992: Die Inschriften von Tall Bderi (Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient Texte 2). Berlin.Google Scholar
Moorey, P. R. S., 1994: Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries. The Archaeological Evidence. Oxford.Google Scholar
Moortgat, A., 1965: Tell Chuera in Nordost-Syrien. Vorläufiger Bericht über die 4. Grabungskampagne 1963 (Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 31). Köln and Opladen.Google Scholar
Moortgat, A. and Moortgat-Correns, U., 1978: Tell Chuera in Nordost-Syrien. Vorläufiger Bericht über die 8. Grabungskampagne 1976 (Schriften der Max Freiherr von Oppenheim Stiftung 11). Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Müller-Karpe, M., 1993: Metallgefäße im Iraq I (Von den Anfängen bis zur Akkad-Zeit) (Prähistorische Bronzefunde 2/14). Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Nissen, H. J., 1966: Zur Datierung des Königsfriedhofes von Ur. Bonn.Google Scholar
Oates, D., 1982: Excavations at Tell Brak, 1978–81, Iraq 44, 187–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D., 1985: Excavations at Tell Brak, 1983–84, Iraq 47, 159–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, D. and Oates, J., 1993: Excavations at Tell Brak, 1992–93, Iraq 55, 155–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odani, N. and Ii, H., 1981: Tell Gubba, in Fujii, 1981, 141–63.Google Scholar
Orthmann, W., 1981: Halawa 1977 bis 1979. Vorläufiger Bericht über die 1. zu 3. Grabungskampagne (Saarbrücken Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 31). Bonn.Google Scholar
Orthmann, W., 1995: Die Grabungen am Steinbau I, in Orthmann, et al. 1995, 17–72.Google Scholar
Orthmann, W. and Pruß, A., 1995: Der Palast F, in Orthmann, et al. 1995, 121–72.Google Scholar
Orthmann, W., Hempelmann, R., Klein, H., Kühne, C., Novak, M., Pruß, A., Vila, E., Weicken, H. M. and Wener, A., 1995: Ausgrabungen in Tell Chuera in Nordost-Syrien I. Vorbericht über die Grabungskampagnen 1986 bis 1992 (Vorderasiatische Forschungen der Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung 2). Saarbrücken.Google Scholar
Parrot, A., 1937: Les fouilles de Mari. Troisième campagne (Hiver 1935–6), Syria. Revue d'art oriental et d'archéologie 18, 54–84.Google Scholar
Parrot, A., 1938: Les fouilles de Mari. Quatrième campagne (Hiver 1936–7), Syria. Revue d'art oriental et d'archéologie 19, 1–29.Google Scholar
Parrot, A., 1953: Les fouilles de Mari. Huitième campagne (Automne 1952), Syria. Revue d'art oriental et d'archéologie 30, 197–221.Google Scholar
Parrot, A., 1956: Le Temple d'Ishtar (Mission Archéologique de Mari 1), Paris.Google Scholar
Parrot, A., 1965: Les fouilles de Mari. Quatorzième campagne (Printemps 1964), Syria. Revue d'art oriental et d'archéologie 42, 1–24.Google Scholar
Palais, Petit, 1983: Au Pays de Baal et d'Astarté. 10 000 ans d'art en Syrie. Paris.Google Scholar
Pfälzner, P., 1990: Tell Bderi – The Development of a Bronze Age Town, in Kerner, 1990, 63–79.Google Scholar
Pfälzner, P., 1998: Eine Modifikation der Periodisierung Nordmesopotamiens im 3. Jtsd. v. Chr., Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 130, 69–71.Google Scholar
Porada, E., Hansen, D. P., Dunham, S. and Babcock, S. H., 1992: The Chronology of Mesopotamia, ca. 7000–1600 B.C., in Ehrich, 1992, I: 77–121 and II: 90–124.Google Scholar
Porter, A., 1995: Tell Banat — Tomb 1, Damaszener Mitteilungen 8, 1–50.Google Scholar
Postgate, J. N., 1977: Excavations at Abu Salabikh1976, Iraq 39, 269–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postgate, J. N. and Moon, J. A., 1982: Excavations at Abu Salabikh 1981, Iraq 44, 103–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothman, M. S. (ed.), 2001: Uruk Mesopotamia and its Neighbors, Cross-Cultural Interactions in the Era of State Formation. Santa Fe/Oxford.Google Scholar
Rouault, O. and Masseti-Rouault, M. (ed.), 1993: L'Eufrate e il tempo. Le civiltà del medio Eufrate e della Gezira siriana. Milano.Google Scholar
Rumayidh al-Jabbouri, S. S., 1988: Results of the Tell Chokheh Excavations (in Arabic). Baghdad.Google Scholar
Schachner, Ş. and Schachner, A., 1995: Eine “syrische” Flasche aus Fara, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 127, 83–96.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G. M. and Curvers, H. H., 1993–1994: Tall ar-Raqa'i 1986–93, Archiv für Orientforschung 40–1, 1993–4, 246–57.Google Scholar
Speiser, E. A., 1935: Excavations at Tepe Gawra, I (Level I–VIII). Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Spycket, A., 1981: La statuaire du Proche-Orient ancien (Handbuch der Orientalistik 7.I.2B2). Leiden/Köln.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strommenger, E., Böhme, S., Brandes, M. A., Hemker, Chr., Kohlmeyer, K., Ludwig, W., Schulze-Wischeler, H. and Selz, G., 1993: Ausgrabungen in Tall Bi'a 1992, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 125, 5–31.Google Scholar
Strommenger, E. and Kohlmeyer, K., 1998: Tall Bi'a/Tuttul — I. Die altorientalischen Bestattungen (Ausgrabungen in Tall Bi'a/Tuttul 1). Saarbrücken.Google Scholar
Talon, Ph. and van Lerbergue, K. (eds.), 1993: En Syrie aux origines de l'écriture. Turnhout.Google Scholar
Tosi, M., 1976–1980: Karneol, Reallexikon der Assyriologie 5, 1976–80, 448–52.Google Scholar
Tubb, J. N., 1982: A Crescentic Axehead from Amarna (Syria) and an Examination from Similar Axeheads in the Near East, Iraq 44, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tunca, Ö., 1987: Tell Sabra (Hamrin Report 7). Leuven.Google Scholar
Wäfler, M., 1979: Zur Datierung von Hama J, Ugarit Forschungen 11, 783–98.Google Scholar
Weiss, H. (ed.), 1985: Ebla to Damascus. Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria. An Exhibition from the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, Syrian Arab Republic. Washington.Google Scholar
Woolley, C. L., 1914: Hittite Burial Customs, Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 6/3, 87–98.Google Scholar
Woolley, C. L., 1934: The Royal Cemetery. A Report on the Predynastic and Sargonid Graves Excavated between 1926 and 1934 (Ur Excavations 2). London.Google Scholar
Wright, H. T., 1980: Problems of Absolute Chronology in Protohistoric Mesopotamia, Paléorient 6, 93–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar