Scripts and Thinking in Ancient Mesopotamia

Today in Japan,we use three different types of script. First Kana(hiragana and Katakana),phonetic-syllabic scripts,second kanji,used as ideographs and logographs,and lastly the European alphabet which is phonemic in origin. In our daily life,we switch among these scripts according to circumstances,unconsciously discerning which is appropriate. In Ancient Mesopotamia,where the oldest script in the world was born,the situation was rather similar to that in Japn today. The Sumerian people who had invented an ideographic system in order to represent their language,moved to the second atage of script,namely the phonemic. They already used a kind of double system of writing. Speakers of the Akkadian language later became preponderant,and borrowed the Sumerian writing system for their own language. As a rule they used phonography,but eventually employed ideography. This is the main feature of their cuneiform writing systems. Thus,the scribes used phonograms and ideograms at the same time according to tradition and circumstances. Born as a pictogram,later an ideogram,one cuneiform character was identified with one object. Thus a character could have a kind of substance. The name of the object in question was also identified in the character,and thus could have a kind of substance. Some Mesopotamian scholars took advantage of this complication in order to well understand the object itself,represented by writings,as well as to develop Knowledge of it. We actually have a certain number of documents concerning this phenomenon,which convey to us the efforts of scholars. These are:―An episode of the Creation of Man in the "Atra-hasis"epic and the nomination of the phantom―The 50 names of Marduk in "Enuma Elis"epic ―Commentaries on these 50 names ―Some tricky devices in writings on these 50 names ―Several initial lines of the epic"Erra and Isum" ―Three episodes in Assyrian royal inscriptions(number symbolism) If we analyze these examples in detail,we will be able to follow the development of the thinking and wisdom in ancient Mesopotamia,which is a source of human civilization