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- Writing was invented, perhaps for the first time, during the Uruk period in Mesopotamia.
The script evolved from a method for recording business contracts employing small clay tokens.
These tokens, in the shapes of small cones, spheres, disks, and cylinders, were used to represent
quantities of a specific commodity, such as bread or cloth. They were sealed into hollow clay
spheres, called bullae, and broken open at the time of delivery to verify that the contract had
been fulfilled. The bullae, which first appear around 3500 bce, were often labeled on the out-
side by pressing the tokens into the soft clay of the sphere. This method of imprinting was soon
applied to clay tablets, and, by around 3200 bce, a reed was being used to form different con-
figurations of wedge- shaped impressions into clay tablets— a type of writing called cuneiform,
or “wedge- shaped.” The earliest version of the new script is termed “proto- cuneiform.” Proto-
cuneiform employed about 700 different signs, including both numbers and words. Many of
these signs are recognizable and were used strictly for accounting purposes. Although the proto-
cuneiform script shows little relation to a spoken language, there is evidence that the people who
developed it were Sumerian speakers. Van de Mieroop, M. (2004), A History of the Ancient Near
East: Ca. 3000– 323 bc. Wiley- Blackwell. - Saggs, H. W. F. (2000), Babylonians. University of California Press, p. 25.
- Kramer, S. N. (1972), Sumerian Mythology (Revised Edition). University of Pennsylvania
Press; Westenholz, Joan Goodnick (1998), Goddesses of the ancient Near East 3000– 1000 b.c.
in L. Goodison and C. Morris, eds., Ancient Goddesses: The Myths and the Evidence. British
Museum Press, pp. 61– 82. - Jacobsen, T. (1976), The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion.
Yale University Press. Many assyriologists are reluctant to accept this translation because it is
based on a single lexical entry in which the Sumerian word an is equated with the Akkadian
word sissinnu, which refers to the date inflorescence, or “date inflorescence broom.” In con-
trast, there are numerous lexical entries in which sissinnu is equated with a longer Sumerian
term for date inflorescence, gish- an- na gish.nimbar. Thus, the single lexical entry of an
for sissinnu may represent an abbreviation for gish- an- na. If so, the correct expression for
“Lady of the Date Clusters” would be Ingishana, not Inanna (Wolfgang Heimpel, personal
communication, 2003). - Sjöberg, Åke W. (1988). A hymn to Inanna and her self- praise. Journal of Cuneiform
Studies 40:165– 185. - In the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in April 2003, the Warka Vase fell victim
to the frenzy of looting during which much of the Iraqi National Museum’s priceless collec-
tion was stolen or destroyed. Although the vase was subsequently recovered— shattered into
fragments— and “restored” to some semblance of its pre- war state, it still exhibits considerable
irreparable damage. - Broadly speaking, the first register encompasses all photosynthetic eukaryotes, from algae
to higher plants. However, photosynthetic bacteria also make a huge contribution to the earth’s
total biomass, as do the chemosynthetic bacteria, which use chemical forms of energy in the
environment instead of sunlight. - The term “sacred marriage” is a translation of the Greek term hieròs gámos, referring to the
marriage of Zeus and Hera. However, J. G. Frazier in The Golden Bough also applied the term
to certain rituals in earlier cultures in which marriages (often between a ruler and a deity) were
symbolically consummated as a means of securing fertility and abundance for the group.