In the dusty city states of ancient Mesopotamia, long before the advent of written language, mysterious symbols etched into stone cylinders told stories of trade, ownership, and governance. Today, these imprints, pressed into clay tablets over 5,000 years ago, may reveal the secrets behind the birth of writing itself. A team from the University of Bologna has uncovered striking links between the engraved designs of these ancient cylinder seals and the world’s first writing system, proto-cuneiform. Their findings offer tantalizing insight into how the symbolic imagery used in these seals laid t…
