Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Matt's avatar

Every time I come across Cuneiform I'm staggered by its complexity even in its oldest examples. I'm not very familiar with the scholarship on this, but imagine that like other aspects of human invention, writing systems went through long periods of development, whose forms and articles are now lost to history, before the adoption of the existent specimens that have survived to the present day. I wonder how long merchants and tax collectors scratched symbols in the dirt or set them in temporary mud casts which have been lost to time, before bothering to fire the clay records which lasted the intervening millennia.

Separately I can't let mention of the ancient Sahara appear without linking to the Guelta d'Archei in modern day Chad, these amazing photos are so incredible and, I think, perhaps evoke the ancient eras of central Africa's early human history: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/04/guelta-darchei-surprising-oasis-in-chad.html

Expand full comment
Timber Fox's avatar

Thank you for another fascinating read.

Expand full comment
8 more comments...

No posts