Dr. Irving Finkel

The two languages divulge, but so do the signs in a matching way.

So that, for example, if you know about cuneiform, if you see a tablet without even reading any of the words, you know it's a Babylonian hand or an Assyrian hand.

So the two functions run in parallel.

That's one thing.

And the other thing is, and this is the most important insight into the whole matter, in my opinion, is this.

It's the stylization and the acceptance by all concerned of what the form of a sign is.

So if you have a situation with fertile imaginations of lively and competitive individuals in a position of authority with a bit of power, and this new writing system comes along and they get the hang of it.

So they all do it and they all think about it.

And then they will have these signs and they all have their own signs for this.

And then someone says, oh, we've got to have a...

We've got to have a sign for chariot wheel.

We've got to have a sign for telephone box and all this kind of thing.

So before you know where you are, you have a proliferation of pictograms which are only really understandable to the people who invented the particular ones.

This never happens.

So when we have a horizon...

With early dynastic signs and pre-early dynastic signs on clay tablets from places in Mesopotamia, there are not seven or eight systems running.

It's one system.

And there may be the odd thing people say, oh, this looks like the way Lagash people do the sign for.

Maybe.

But in principle, it's one system.