Co-authors Kathryn Kelley and Mattia Cartolano from the University of Bologna's Department of Classical Philology and Italian ...

Researchers investigating how the first writing arose identified the motifs on preliterate "cylinder seals" used in the trade of agricultural products and textiles.

New research traces Mesopotamian origins of writing back to trade symbols, shedding light on the evolution of written ...

Cuneiform writing, which evolved from proto-cuneiform, used a stylus to make wedge-shaped impressions in unbaked clay. These ...

Ancient cylinder seals in Mesopotamia shaped the development of proto-cuneiform writing in Uruk around 3000 BCE, linking ...

A new study revives the old argument that ancient seals came before cuneiform, humanity's earliest known example of writing.

Before Mesopotamian people invented writing, they used cylinder seals to press patterns into wet clay – and some of the ...

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.