So far I have been discussing the contribution of Sumerians for the creation and evolution of first written language in the world history. There I discussed from simple clay tokens, complex clay tokens, pictogram to linear symbolic representation of the written language.
Content of Clay tablets
Now lets see what they wrote on clay tablets. The types of records that were kept on clay tablet varied greatly. Although they were used for recording business transactions initially, clay tablets were also used for literature, both poetry and prose. They recorded epics, myths, lamentations, tales, prayers, proverbs hymns and wisdom compositions on clay tablets. There were books on divination, law, history, science and just about any topic you might find in a library today.
For example the Epic of Gilgamesh is, perhaps, the oldest written story on Earth and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cunieform script. It is about the adventures of the historical King of Uruk; one of the most powerful kings in Sumer between 2750 and 2500 BCE.
Later on Assyrians enclosed their writing in an outer ”envelope” of clay that was marked with a title similar to cover page today. Clay tablets might also be stored in earthenware jars with clay labels attached. Many books were composed of more than one tablet, in which case the tablets were numbered and kept shelved in their proper order. Later stages in Mesopotamian civilisation there exist collection of clay tablets. At Nineveh, 22,000 tablets were found, dating from the seventh century BC; this was the archive and library of the kings of Assyria
Though it is easy to see how clay tablets are different from what we think of today as a book, the complete history of books must include them. They may not be direct ancestors of the modern book in the physical sense, but in other ways as David Diringer notes in
The Book Before Printing, “Mesopotamian clay tablets were books in the real sense of the word.”
Readings
1. Diringer, David. The Book Before Printing: Ancient, Medieval and Oriental. 1953. New York: Dover, 1982
2. Silvester, Necole, Clay tablets as books; the first books known to history, 2009, suit 101.com
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