all of the 1,700administrative tablets that were found at the later capital of Lagash,called Girsu, came from the queen’s palace.

The scribes did not, however, try toexpress every part of speech; their script was still a shorthandversion of language.

The sign for “food” (also for“bread”) in proto-cuneiform is the shape of a beveled-rim bowl.

The scribes do not seem to have thought of this scriptthat they had invented as a representation of language.

This proto-cuneiform tablet from Uruk includes signs forsheep and the goddess Inanna, but its meaning is unclear.

It is writtenin a script known as proto-cuneiform, a script that did not representsounds or even language at all; signs served as memory aids.

cuneiform was occasionallyemployed in both Canaan and Egyp

The ancient Near East is defined here as comprising the “cuneiformlands,”

Cuneiform account keeping began with numerical signs in Uruk-phase Sumer (Schmandt-Besserat Reference Schmandt-Besserat1996), which by the Late Uruk period formed the precursor for writing in its combination of numerals and associated images (Englund Reference Englund, Radner and Robson2011), exactly what we have identified.

The wedge-shaped impressions developed into the system of writing known as cuneiform (Latin cuneus,a wedge)