A new study into the origins of writing showed that the world's most famous writing system was influenced by symbols from cylinder seals used in the trade of agricultural and textile products.
Some of the seals examined in the new study date back to approximately 4400 BCE, more than 1,000 years before the development of writing. "The conceptual leap from pre-writing symbolism to writing is a significant development in human cognitive technologies," explained Professor Silvia Ferrara from the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna, who led the research team.
"The invention of writing marks the transition between prehistory and history, and the findings of this study bridge this divide by illustrating how some late prehistoric images were incorporated into one of the earliest invented writing systems,” she added.
One of the first and most significant cities to emerge in Mesopotamia was Uruk – an ancient city in Sumer located about 300 km (186 miles) north of modern-day Baghdad, between Babylon and Ur. Uruk was a vital urban center during the fourth millennium BCE, exerting influence over a region stretching from southwestern Iran to southeastern Turkey.
In this area, cylinder seals were created, typically made of stone and engraved with intricate designs used to stamp clay tablets. From the mid-fourth millennium BCE, cylinder seals became part of an accounting system for tracking the production, storage and transportation of various goods, particularly agricultural and textile products.
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Plate fearuring proto-cuneiform writing
(Photo: CDLI - Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative)
In this context, proto-cuneiform emerged – an archaic form of writing predating cuneiform, consisting of hundreds of pictographic signs, over half of which remain undeciphered. Like cylinder seals, proto-cuneiform was used for accounting, though its use is primarily documented in southern Iraq.
"The close relationship between ancient sealing and the invention of writing in southwest Asia has long been recognized, but the relationship between specific seal images and sign shapes has hardly been explored," said Ferrara. "This was our starting question: did seal imagery contribute significantly to the invention of signs in the first writing in the region?”
To answer this, the researchers systematically compared the designs on cylinder seals with proto-cuneiform signs, searching for matches that might reveal direct connections, both in graphic form and meaning.
"We focused on seal imagery that originated before the invention of writing, while continuing to develop into the proto-literate period," explained Kathryn Kelley and Mattia Cartolano, Ferrara's research partners from the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna.
"This approach allowed us to identify a series of designs related to the transport of textiles and pottery, which later evolved into corresponding proto-cuneiform signs."
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This discovery reveals a direct link between cylinder seals and the invention of writing for the first time, offering fresh perspectives on the evolution of symbolic and writing systems.
"Our findings demonstrate that the designs engraved on cylinder seals are directly connected to the development of proto-cuneiform in southern Iraq. They also show how the meaning originally associated with these designs was integrated into a writing system," Ferrara concluded.