Nabu is cognate to the Sumerian deity called Nisaba. The latter was an earlier, Sumerian goddess of writing, learning, and the harvest. She was also the patroness of scribes. Gradually, her cult ...

For instance, Sumerian scribes could perhaps only fit a dozen lines of cuneiform onto a typical clay slab, but some of their inscriptions can still be read on surviving tablets six millennia later.

The earliest recorded handwriting we have is from Sumerian scribes from the year 3200 B.C., and honestly, that writing sample is about as legible as my own.

Object Details Author Visicato, Giuseppe Date 2000 C2000 Call number DS69.9 .V58 Type Books Physical description xv, 298 p. ; 24 cm Place Iraq Babylonia Data Source Smithsonian Libraries Topic Scribes ...

Miguel Civil, a scholar and researcher at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, was a leading expert on the Sumerian language, the earliest known written language. “No one has… ...