25: The invention of writing in Uruk IVA Unug, ca 3300-3200 BCE (Babel, Hymn to Nisaba)

Guest: Kelten

First, a familiar story that just happens to involve monumental construction projects, clay bricks, and universal language. Behold!

Then, we take a look at Unug around the 3200s BCE, when the Uruk expansion came to a close and the city center underwent another monumental renovation. Was this city ruled by the so-called “priest-king” depicted conducting rituals, leading troops in battle, and punishing prisoners of war?

Then, at long last, the bureaucrats in the E-anna temple complex finally get around to inventing writing! We take a stroll through the long prehistory of administrative record-keeping, the means by which young scribes learned to write, and the fundamental shift in world history precipitated by the adoption of cuneiform.

Finally, we close with a hymn to Nisaba, goddess of writing (and cereal agriculture, of course)— good woman, chief scribe of An, record-keeper of Enlil, wise sage of the gods!

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