Name ________________________

Cuneiform Writing in Mesopotamia

You are a student at a school to become a scribe in Mesopotamia. Learning all of the

symbols to write is very challenging. Your teacher gives you lessons to write on your clay tablet,

but you continue to make mistakes. Every time you do, you have to smooth out your surface and

start all over again. Mistakes are unacceptable. These tablets will be used for communication

and some preserved to be read years from now. Your job as a scribe can lead important jobs for

the king. You could make your family very proud.

The Sumerians, or people from southern Mesopotamia, made one of the greatest cultural

advances in history. They developed Cuneiform, the world’s first system of writing. They did

not have pencils, pens, or paper, but they used sharp tools called styluses to make wedge-shaped

symbols on clay tablets. Before Cuneiform, they used picture symbols, or pictographs. Each

picture represented an object, such as a tree or animal. In Cuneiform, however, symbols could

also represent basic parts of words. This way, they could combine symbols to form words, just

as letters are today.

Cuneiform was first used to keep records. A scribe, or writer, would be hired to keep

track of items that were traded. Scribes were also hired by government officials and temples to

keep their records. Being a scribe was a way to move up in social class or importance.

Sumerians developed their writing skills to write stories, songs, do math and practice grammar.

Sumerian students went to school to learn to read and write, but like today, some students

did not want to study. The teachers would write their examples on the top half of the clay tablet,

and students would copy the words on the bottom half. Today, you learned to practice writing

Cuneiform, the thousand-year-old language, just as students did in Sumer.

Name ________________________

1. If students made a mistake on their clay tablet, how did the start ove?
a. Rolled it in a ball
b. Smoothed out the surface
c. Erased it
d. Crossed it off

2. Sumerians are people from Southern Mesopotamia

a. True
b. False

3. Cuneiform is the third system of writing.

a. True
b. False

4. Sumerians had pens, pencils, and paper to write with.

a. True
b. False

5. What was Cuneiform first used for?

a. Keeping Records
b. Practicing math skills
c. Writing notes
d. Art

6. A scribe is a writer.
a. True
b. False

7. Being a scribe was a way to:

a. Get really smart
b. Help with farming
c. Move up in importance
d. Make artistic paintings

8. All students in scribe school wanted to study.

a. True
b. False

9. Teachers would write examples on the top half of the clay tablet, and students would copy
the words on the bottom half.
a. True
b. False

10. Cuneiform is a thousand-year-old language.

a. True
b. False