46 Early World Civilizations: Supplemental Guide 2A | Writing in Mesopotamia
Warad said gently, “Well, Amur, our king has done many
wonderful things. But someone else made up writing even before
the king was born. And Iddin, I’m afraid we don’t know exactly
who it was that fi gured out how to write and decided what each
symbol should mean.”
Iddin laughed. “Maybe they should have kept a record on clay
tablets in cuneiform!”
Warad laughed, too. “Well, whoever it was did us all a great
favor. If we couldn’t write, it would be harder to remember
information for long periods of time.. .”
Iddin interrupted, “Like how much cloth you sold last year?”
Warad smiled, “Like how much cloth I sold last year.”
Show image 2A-5: Scribes
“People around here, between the Tigris (TY-gris) and the
Euphrates (you-FRAY-teez) Rivers, have known about writing for
nearly fi fteen hundred years. 5 That’s important. In fact, King
Hammurabi may not have invented writing, but he had a great
idea about how to use it. Hammurabi was so powerful that he
made up a set of rules, or laws, for people to live by, so that they
would know how to behave in different situations. Then he had
his scribes write them down.^6 Actually, your uncle, my brother, is
one of the scribes who helped the king write down the laws of our
country. This set of laws is called the Code of Hammurabi. There
are 282 laws in all.”^7
“That’s a lot of laws!” exclaimed Iddin. “That must have taken
Uncle and the other scribes a long time to write.” He hesitated.
“How did Uncle get to be a scribe anyway?”
“Our father, your grandfather, was a scribe, and that is why all
our family members can read and write. Your grandfather taught
your uncle, and he taught me. We are lucky that we know how to
read and write. And if your uncle and the others had not written
down all the laws of King Hammurabi... ”
“... who could remember all 282 of them?” Iddin fi nished.5 That’s a really long time!
6 Scribes are people whose job it is to
write things down.
7 Who in the story is speaking about
Hammurabi? (Warad)
[Reinforce that Warad is a fi ctional
character, but King Hammurabi
and the Code of Hammurabi were
real.]