CNN —Researchers have uncovered links between the precursor to the world’s oldest writing system and the mysterious, intricate designs left behind by engraved cylindrical seals that were rolled across clay tablets about 6,000 years ago. Scholars consider cuneiform the first writing system, and humans used its wedge-shaped characters to inscribe ancient languages such as Sumerian on clay tablets beginning around 3400 BC. The writing system is thought to have originated from Mesopotamia, the region where the world’s earliest known civilization developed that’s now modern-day Iraq. “This gap in the origin story — where do the nonnumerical proto-cuneiform signs come from — was left unresolved,” Johnson said. Correlating seal motifs (left) with proto-cuneiform pictographs could help researchers decipher hundreds of the symbols whose meaning is still unknown.

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Persons: ”, Silvia Ferrara, “, ” Ferrara, Ferrara, Kathryn Kelley et, Kathryn Kelley, Kelley, Mattia Cartolano, Eckart Frahm, John M, Musser, Frahm, ” Frahm, J, Cale Johnson, Johnson, —, ” Johnson Organizations: CNN —, University of Bologna, Civilizations, Yale University, Freie Universität Locations: Mesopotamia, Iraq, Uruk, Iran, Turkey, Asia, Eastern, Freie Universität Berlin