Not pen-paper. Writing on mud is the real deal
Thought ancient ways of writing were dead? If you venture to the Al Ain National Museum, you might get a reality check — and figure out what cuneiform is
Iwas at a workshop in the Al Ain National Museum in Al Ain for nearly an hour. There were some four other visitors apart from me, all seated on chairs around the table. They were also attending the workshop to learn how to write in the cuneiform style — the ancient Sumerian, symbolic form of writing. When I sat down with the tools all ready, the only thought in my mind was: I’ll be done in a minute. On the table was a small hardpacked mud board, a wooden wedge-shaped stick and a paper showing writings in pictographs or signs and translated into alphabets. There was palpable excitement in the room with everyone trying their best to concentrate. Everyone was eager to see how their name appears in cuneiform — one of the earliest forms of writing, by pressing a tool on boards of mud using stone or metal. It was one of the ways ancient people used to write and preserve records. Cuneiform writing is a method of inscription implemented by pressing a wedge-shaped tool in slabs of mud and wax, and engraving on stone and metals. The signs are grouped into boxes and usually read from top to bottom and right to left, explained the instructor, as she gave us the basics of writing. I had already mastered the signs matching the letters that form ‘Ismail’. The next step was to figure out how I could begin writing my name.
But I wasn’t holding the writing tool the right way. The instructor had to show me again how to carefully press it on the mud. I grappled with the first two letters of my name as I had to slowly put together a couple of signs; it took me about four minutes. I was, however, familiar with the tool and the signs by the time I was in the middle of my second name.
The Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and Al Ain National Museum are holding weekly workshops to explore the historical beginnings of cuneiform writing. The workshops introduce visitors and UAE residents to the old form of writing and teaching them the basics.
Bakhita Al Ameri, visitor service coordinator at the Al Ain National Museum who is also conducting the weekly workshops, explains, “Cuneiform means ‘wedge-shaped,’” because people wrote it using a reed stylus cut to make a wedge-shaped mark on a wet clay board,” she said.
In early times, people in Mesopotamia used to make boards from a sort of dough made from mud on which they used to write with the help of a stylus to engrave on the board while still tender. Then the boards would be burnt so that they would stiffen and the writing preserved.
The cuneiform writing, she said, was used to record business, temple activities as well as details of trade. Cuneiform was also used to write stories and personal letters.
Al Ameri said the response has been good, and that people are enjoying learning about history. Cuneiform writing, she says, began in Mesopotamia and then spread to South-west Asia. “Many people
Cuneiform writing is a method of inscription done by pressing a wedgeshaped tool in slabs of mud and wax, and engraving on stone and metals. It is usually read from top to bottom and from right to left
mistakenly call it the cuneiform language, instead of cuneiform writing and this is incorrect,” Al Ameri said.
When this form of writing appeared for the first time in Southern Iraq in the mid-fourth millennium BCE, the pictographs rapidly evolved into imprinted styles that later became known as the cuneiform writing. These texts were drawn on damp clay tablets using a pointed tool. They began to draw marks in the clay to make up signs, which were standardised so they could be universally recognised. Mariam Al Dhaheri, the public engagement programmer, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority also says, “Although cuneiform writing might not have been used in this part of the world, we decided to introduce it to the residents and our visitors because of the historical relationship between the Majan — now called the UAE and Mesopotamia,” said Al Dhaheri.
She says the Al Ain National Museum’s Artefacts Department is hosting numerous relics which contain cuneiform writing at Al Ain National Museum, including a map from, we’re told, 3,000 BCE which shows the relationships between the Acadians and Babylonians as they traded copper, dates, and onions in the ancient regions of Dilmun and Magan.
Divya Ravishankar, an American tourist who attended the cuneiform writing workshop during her visit to the museum on Sunday, described the initiative as an amazing one. “I have learned how to write my name in cuneiform. It’s the first time I’ve heard about this form of writing,” she said.
Ravishankar, who was on a visit in the UAE with her two daughters, to meet family, says teaching things like this is great, especially for children who then develop an interest in history.
Her 15-year-old daughter, Rutu had also learned cuneiform at the workshop and said it was cool to learn about the past.
Rutu said: “Learning about the history of cuneiform has showed me how the world has evolved to reach where we are now in regard to writing,”
Another visitor, Abhay Avatgere, 19, a British national was also impressed with learning the script. He described his trip to Al Ain as an interesting one, having got the chance to learn the basics of cuneiform.
By the end of the hour, everyone had learned how to write their names. A few were able to go the extra mile and had written simple, small words.
Unfortunately, I forgot to pick up the board on which I wrote my name and remembered it while already on my way back home to Abu Dhabi. Well, next time.