The origins of the world’s first writing system may be traced to enigmatic symbols that remain undeciphered.

Recent findings show connections between the early forms of writing and the intricate designs engraved on cylindrical seals that were rolled over clay tablets nearly 6,000 years ago.

Cuneiform, considered the first true writing system, featured wedge-shaped characters used to write languages like Sumerian on clay tablets starting around 3400 BC. It is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia, now modern Iraq.

Before cuneiform, an early script known as proto-cuneiform used abstract symbols and appeared around 3350 to 3000 BC in the city of Uruk, in present-day southern Iraq.

However, the precise origins of proto-cuneiform are still unclear, and many of its symbols remain indecipherable to this day.

Researchers examining proto-cuneiform symbols were astonished to find striking similarities with engravings on cylinder seals from Uruk, dating back to 4400 BC. These seals, used to imprint designs on soft clay, show matching symbols that appear to carry the same meanings, particularly in relation to ancient trade and transactions.

A detailed study of these findings was published on Tuesday in the journal Antiquity.

According to Silvia Ferrara, the lead researcher and professor at the University of Bologna, 'Our research reveals that the engravings on cylinder seals are directly linked to the early development of proto-cuneiform in southern Iraq. They also demonstrate how these early symbols were incorporated into a formal writing system.'

The study's findings could reshape our understanding of the origins of writing and provide new insights into the technological advances made by ancient civilizations in fields such as accounting and written communication.

From accounting to writing

Uruk, now known as Warka, was one of the first cities to emerge in Mesopotamia and played a pivotal role as a cultural hub, influencing regions from present-day southwest Iran to southeast Turkey.

This ancient city is credited with the invention of cylinder seals, which were primarily used for administrative tasks.

Seal engravers carved designs into cylindrical objects that could then be rolled over wet clay to imprint the patterns. These seals, used in a preliterate society, were essential in an early accounting system that tracked the production, storage, and distribution of goods like crops and textiles. The symbols on the seals also served as primitive branding tools to identify commodities, as outlined by the study.

Alongside the seals, the accounting systems of the fourth millennium BC utilized tags, numerical tablets, tokens, and clay balls, known as bullae, to document trade and transactions.

While researchers have long suspected that proto-cuneiform evolved from these early accounting practices, a clear connection had not been established. Unlike the cylinder seals, the hundreds of proto-cuneiform symbols have only been discovered on tablets in southern Iraq.

Ferrara explained, 'The connection between ancient seal imagery and the invention of writing in southwest Asia has long been recognized, but the specific link between seal designs and written signs has been little studied. Our research began with one central question: Did the images on seals directly influence the creation of writing symbols in the region?'

The research team compared motifs from cylinder seals with proto-cuneiform symbols to identify any correlations in shape and meaning. Initially, they expected to find only marginal or indirect connections, but instead, they discovered that certain seal images seemed to directly evolve into proto-cuneiform signs, suggesting that seals played a key role in the development of the first writing system.

Kathryn Kelley, the study's lead author, explained that the strongest connections involved images of jars and textiles being transported. These motifs depicted fringed cloths and vessels carried in nets, often moving toward building facades. These exchanges of goods likely occurred between cities and involved temples, with the seals and tablets serving as documentation of these transactions.

Kelley and study coauthor Mattia Cartolano, a research fellow at the University of Bologna, explained in a joint statement, 'We focused on seal imagery from before the invention of writing, continuing through the proto-literate period. This approach allowed us to identify a range of designs related to the transport of textiles and pottery, which later evolved into proto-cuneiform symbols.'

Tracing Ancient Connections

The similarities between seal motifs and proto-cuneiform signs suggest a strong connection between the two, according to Eckart Frahm, Professor of Near Eastern Languages at Yale University. Frahm, who was not involved in the study, commented on the findings.

Frahm remarked, 'This study establishes for the first time that many proto-cuneiform signs have direct iconographic parallels in the designs found on seals. The authors take this a step further by demonstrating through contextual analysis that clusters of images from seals also appear in similar arrangements on inscribed clay tablets.'

It’s clear that ancient Mesopotamians used both seals and writing side by side for centuries, with one form of documentation not fully replacing the other over time.

The research team is now eager to explore what kinds of goods were transported in the netted vessels and why these images remained prevalent across such a vast area for so many centuries. They are also interested in understanding why these exchanges were significant enough to be recorded on clay tablets.

Previously, it was believed that simple tokens contributed to the numerical system of proto-cuneiform, while more intricate tokens with carvings and marks were the basis for nonnumerical signs. However, this assumption was proven incorrect, according to Dr. J. Cale Johnson, a professor at Freie Universität Berlin, who was not involved in the study.

'The question of where the nonnumerical proto-cuneiform signs originated from had been left unresolved,' Johnson explained. 'While many have suggested that these images must have come from seals or other forms of representation, little work has been done to identify their concrete precursors. This paper, however, marks an important step in filling that gap.'

Unraveling the Mystery of Unknown Symbols

As researchers continue to uncover more about ancient cities like Uruk and the symbolic language of early civilizations, they may be able to decode the hundreds of proto-cuneiform pictographs that remain a mystery, according to the study's authors.

'Due to the highly stylized and abstract nature of many proto-cuneiform signs — which contrasts sharply with the more pictorial Egyptian hieroglyphs — it is unlikely that a complete agreement will ever be reached on what these signs truly represent and where they originated. However, this does not mean we should not continue to explore these questions,' Frahm explained.

Writing may seem like an inevitable technology that naturally evolves over time, but in reality, it was only independently invented a few times in history, without prior knowledge of existing writing systems, Ferrara explained.

'For a long time, scholars have wondered what social and technological factors prompted the cognitive breakthroughs that led to written language,' Ferrara said. 'While it's still debated how much language encoding the early cuneiform actually involved, it is crucial to recognize that it quickly evolved into 'true' writing within a few centuries. The creation of proto-cuneiform represents a turning point in this development.'

The study's authors note that recognizing the direct connection between motifs on seals and the pictographs that would eventually form the first writing system reveals how meaning transitioned from symbolic images to a written script.

'The shift from pre-writing symbols to actual writing is a major milestone in human cognitive technology,' Ferrara said. 'The invention of writing marks the boundary between prehistory and recorded history, and our findings help bridge this divide by showing how late prehistoric imagery contributed to the emergence of one of the earliest writing systems.'