As their name suggests, these texts are lists or rather inventories of signs, enumerated one after the other, following a thematic principle, as they are linked by semantic connections{{sfn|Nissen|1997|p=24}}{{,}}{{sfn|Nissen|2016|p=39-40}}. These lists can be grouped into several general categories according to their theme, which are often known from several examples: lists of places/cities, lists of animals, lists of plants and manufactured goods, and lists of people/professions{{sfn|Englund|1998|p=90}}. This results in tablets that are easily identifiable by their external characteristics: they are made up of small boxes organized in columns, each containing a sign or a group of signs, accompanied by the basic numerical sign of the sexagesimal system S (N01).{{sfn|Englund|1998|p=82-84}}
As their name suggests, these texts are lists or rather inventories of signs, enumerated one after the other, following a thematic principle, as they are linked by semantic connections{{sfn|Nissen|1997|p=24}}{{,}}{{sfn|Nissen|2016|p=39-40}}. These lists can be grouped into several general categories according to their theme, which are often known from several examples: lists of places/cities, lists of animals, lists of plants and manufactured goods, and lists of people/professions{{sfn|Englund|1998|p=90}}. This results in tablets that are easily identifiable by their external characteristics: they are made up of small boxes organized in columns, each containing a sign or a group of signs, accompanied by the basic numerical sign of the sexagesimal system S (N01).{{sfn|Englund|1998|p=82-84}}
<gallery mode=”packed” heights=”150px”>
Proto-cuneiform lexical list of places – BM 116625.jpg|alt=Tablette en argile ébréchée, divisée en cases comprenant des signes proto-cunéiformes et numériques.|[[Liste lexicale|Liste]] de noms de lieux, [[Djemdet Nasr]]. [[British Museum]]. Parmi les premières de la liste se trouvent des villes bien connues telles qu'[[Ur (Mésopotamie)|Ur]], [[Nippur]], [[Larsa]] et [[Uruk]]. L’ordre dans lequel elles apparaissent pourrait refléter une hiérarchie mythologique ou cultuelle{{sfn|Englund|1998|p=92}}.
Clay tablet, lexical text, listing 58 different terms for pig. From Uruk, Iraq. 3200 BCE. Pergamon Museum.jpg|alt=Tablette en argile ébréchée, divisée en cases comprenant des signes proto-cunéiformes et numériques.|Liste de suidés (ŠUBUR), Uruk. Pergamon Museum. Il s’agit d’un des exemples de listes d’animaux, les autres énumérant des bovidés, des poissons et des oiseaux{{sfn|Englund|1998|p=94}}.
Lexical list vessels 1928.445b.jpg|alt=Tablette en argile ébréchée et fragmentaire, divisée en cases comprenant des signes proto-cunéiformes et numériques.|Liste de vases, Djemdet Nasr. [[Ashmolean Museum]]. Il s’agit d’une des listes les plus attestées. La première section de la liste, attestée ici, comprend des signes dérivés de celui de la jarre, différenciés visuellement par les signes tracés à l’intérieur du pictogramme, qui permettent de les distinguer en fonction de leur contenu. Les premiers signes semblent désigner des contenants de produits laitiers{{sfn|Englund|1998|p=95 et 98}}.
Proto-cuneiform Lu2 list.svg|alt=Dessins d’une tablette proto-cunéiforme schématique, divisée en case.|Liste de personnes (Lu{{sub|2}} A), version composite réalisée par R. Englund à partir des exemplaires retrouvés{{sfn|Englund|1998|p=104 fig. 32}}.
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The lists of individuals include a list of professions and positions, which could be organized according to a hierarchical principle: the first position listed, that of NÁM.EŠDA, is, according to Nissen, that of the most important figure at the time. Next come other individuals whose job titles begin with the sign NÁM, meaning “chief,” those responsible for areas related to administration, who appear to be listed one after the other according to their importance. This list could therefore provide clues about the administrative organization of the time, which was already impressive and diverse.{{sfn|Nissen|2016|p=39-40}}
The lists of individuals include a list of professions and positions, which could be organized according to a hierarchical principle: the first position listed, that of NÁM.EŠDA, is, according to Nissen, that of the most important figure at the time. Next come other individuals whose job titles begin with the sign NÁM, meaning “chief,” those responsible for areas related to administration, who appear to be listed one after the other according to their importance. This list could therefore provide clues about the administrative organization of the time, which was already impressive and diverse.{{sfn|Nissen|2016|p=39-40}}
Materials
In order to write the first texts (as well as for the precursors of writing such as tokens and bullae), the administrators of southern Mesopotamia primarily used the most abundant materials in their region: clay and reed.
Clay was used to make writing media, mainly in the form of tablets. Although clay was by far the most common material, some texts were written on stone tablets, and it is also possible that other perishable materials were used. The choice of clay, a durable material, is responsible for the large amount of documentation preserved in proto-cuneiform, compared to the earliest writing systems from other parts of the world.
The instrument used to trace the signs in fresh clay was made from a carved reed stalk: stylus. As writing developed, the shapes of these styluses undoubtedly diversified. Two configurations eventually became dominant: styluses with a bevelled tip that made wedge-shaped marks for non-numerical signs, and those with a rounded tip that made circular or semi-circular marks for numerical signs.
The oldest proto-cuneiform tablets clearly derive from numerical tablets and have a simple format: they are small, written on one side only, and contain a limited amount of information. Transaction receipts preserve this simple form. Later, during Uruk III period, larger and more complex tablets appeared, divided into several boxes organized in rows or columns, written on both sides.
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Square administrative tablet, Uruk III, Djemdet Nasr. Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago.
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Rectangular administrative tablet, divided into boxes and rows, Uruk III, provenance unknown. British Museum. Records the distribution of beer, represented by the sign KAŠ, a vase with a hatched interior. Five types of numerical signs are used.
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Administrative limestone tablet, Uruk III, provenance unknown. Louvre Museum. List of proper names on a personnel register(?).
Other clay tablets are much simpler: labels, so called because they are pierced with a hole, indicating that they were attached by a string to a container. Inscriptions on vases have also been discovered.
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Label with the EN sign, Uruk III, provenance unknown. Louvre Museum.
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Vessel sherd with pictographic inscription, excavated in Jemdet Nasr. Ashmolean Museum. The two signs on the left are KAŠ “beer” and DUG “vase”, i.e. the contents of the vase; the two signs on the right are the sequence ENa NEa, probably a title or profession.
Administrative texts
The vast majority of proto-cuneiform texts are administrative in nature, accounting for approximately 85% of the total.
The tablets from the Uruk IV period, similar to earlier numerical tablets, are generally small and written on one side only, containing limited information and being concise. They often combine a few numerical signs with pictograms. The aim is to identify a transaction with the product, the quantity, and the person or administrative office receiving or shipping the goods. However, from the Uruk IV period onwards, more complex tablets appeared: divided into boxes and columns, they recorded several transactions, one per section. Some included numerical notes on the reverse side summarizing the quantities recorded on the front, with the identification of the products and the offices responsible. The Uruk III period saw an increase in the complexity of this type of tablet, with more developed summaries. Tablets tended to become larger, written in several columns and on both sides. Labels (attested for both phases), that were probably attached to products (or to eh bags, or to the boxes, containing those products), are unique in that they do not include any numerical signs, but only logograms indicating the content or the office responsible for the goods to which they are attached.
Proto-cuneiform administrative tablets are instruments used to record product movements, varying in complexity. According to Nissen’s summary:
The texts deal with deliveries to a central store and the distribution of agricultural products of all kinds, i.e., foodstuffs in the broad sense and other raw materials, as well as personnel and labor management. In some cases, it is possible to identify the recipients as high-ranking officials […]. At present, we know nothing about those who delivered the foodstuffs, although this would be of great interest for reconstructing the economic system.
These texts appear to have been produced by offices, sections of the administration responsible for a specific task, such as a grain store. They may record totals over long periods of time, to be used for monitoring the situation, and perhaps for forecasting purposes, for example to determine how much grain to set aside for the next sowing season.
These documents ultimately serve purposes similar to those of their predecessors (tokens, envelopes, numerical tablets), namely to facilitate the management of the uninterrupted and ever-increasing flow of products handled by the stores and administrative offices of Uruk institutions. But they clearly do so in a more comprehensive manner. Administrative tablets do not seem to document other concerns, which explains why they do not provide much information about the administrative structure of their time.[8]
Lexical lists
Proto-cuneiform non-administrative tablets are named sign lists or lexical lists. They constitute approximately 15% of the known corpus, but they are very unevenly distributed between the two phases: they constitute only 1% of the Uruk IV corpus compared to 20% of the Uruk III corpus. This would indicate a development of this type of tablet during the second period.
As their name suggests, these texts are lists or rather inventories of signs, enumerated one after the other, following a thematic principle, as they are linked by semantic connections · . These lists can be grouped into several general categories according to their theme, which are often known from several examples: lists of places/cities, lists of animals, lists of plants and manufactured goods, and lists of people/professions. This results in tablets that are easily identifiable by their external characteristics: they are made up of small boxes organized in columns, each containing a sign or a group of signs, accompanied by the basic numerical sign of the sexagesimal system S (N01).
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Liste de noms de lieux, Djemdet Nasr. British Museum. Parmi les premières de la liste se trouvent des villes bien connues telles qu’Ur, Nippur, Larsa et Uruk. L’ordre dans lequel elles apparaissent pourrait refléter une hiérarchie mythologique ou cultuelle. -
Liste de suidés (ŠUBUR), Uruk. Pergamon Museum. Il s’agit d’un des exemples de listes d’animaux, les autres énumérant des bovidés, des poissons et des oiseaux. -
Liste de vases, Djemdet Nasr. Ashmolean Museum. Il s’agit d’une des listes les plus attestées. La première section de la liste, attestée ici, comprend des signes dérivés de celui de la jarre, différenciés visuellement par les signes tracés à l’intérieur du pictogramme, qui permettent de les distinguer en fonction de leur contenu. Les premiers signes semblent désigner des contenants de produits laitiers. -
Liste de personnes (Lu2 A), version composite réalisée par R. Englund à partir des exemplaires retrouvés.
The lists of individuals include a list of professions and positions, which could be organized according to a hierarchical principle: the first position listed, that of NÁM.EŠDA, is, according to Nissen, that of the most important figure at the time. Next come other individuals whose job titles begin with the sign NÁM, meaning “chief,” those responsible for areas related to administration, who appear to be listed one after the other according to their importance. This list could therefore provide clues about the administrative organization of the time, which was already impressive and diverse.
These lists often include signs that are not attested in administrative tablets, which could reflect a taste for scholarly speculation, in which case some of the signs found there are somewhat fictional. But this point is debated. They seem to focus on the environment of the time and its economic practices. They were probably used to teach writing and its signs, for the drafting of administrative tablets. But they undoubtedly served other purposes as well. It has been observed that the signs are not arranged randomly one after the other, but according to a specific classification principle. For example, a hierarchical/honorific order seems to exist in certain cases (lists of people, lists of cities). This suggests that the order in which the signs are written in these lists was carefully thought out in advance. · In 1936, W. von Soden proposed that they were used to record and organize the world, an idea that convinced some specialists, but not all. In any case, they are at the origin of a type of lexicographical work characteristic of the Mesopotamian literary tradition, several of whose canonical compositions derive from the lists of the Uruk period.
One of these texts stands out: the “Tribute List” (or “List of C Words”), which combines various types of signs (numbers, animals, products). It has been interpreted as either the oldest known literary work or, more simply, a quick reference guide summarizing the most commonly used elements in the proto-cuneiform system.
