| Both sides previous revisionPrevious revisionNext revision | Previous revision |
| cuneiform_writing_techniques [2020/10/25 14:25] – [Cuneiform on wax] discussion of the "grooved stylus" updated cammarosano | cuneiform_writing_techniques [2020/10/25 14:32] (current) – [Cuneiform Writing Techniques] cammarosano |
|---|
| |
| |
| (For an updated & expanded version of this page, see [[https://cuneiform.neocities.org/CWT/CWT.html]]) | (For an expanded version of this page, see [[https://cuneiform.neocities.org/CWT/CWT.html]]) |
| |
| ===== The wedge ===== | ===== The wedge ===== |
| ===== Try yourself! ===== | ===== Try yourself! ===== |
| |
| {{:image032.jpg?600x150|Giant reed stalks, saw, and chisel: all you need to make a stylus. A modern scribe at play: Prof. Theo van den Hout of the Chicago Oriental Institute.}}Writing cuneiform is much easier than you may think… and it’s fun! First, shape the clay to form your tablet, rolling out and folding multiple sheets of clay, much like kneading a pizza dough -- best of all, follow this 4000 year-old Sumerian recipe: “[quick], come here, take the clay, knead it, flatten it, [mix(?) it], roll it (like a ball), make it thick, make (the tablet)!”. Then, make your own stylus from a reed stalk, or just take ready-to-use chopsticks, and start writing: it’s simply a matter of pressing the stylus’ corner into the moist clay, the signs consisting of combinations of wedges and each wedge being obtained through a separate impression (fig. 16). There are three basic types of wedges: vertical, horizontal, and oblique; to pass from one to another and to determine the wedge’s length is all a matter of varying the stylus’ orientation to the tablet and the angle at which it meets the surface. Enjoy! | {{:image032.jpg?600x150|Giant reed stalks, saw, and chisel: all you need to make a stylus. A modern scribe at play: Prof. Theo van den Hout of the Chicago Oriental Institute.}}Writing cuneiform is much easier than you may think… and it’s fun! First, shape the clay to form your tablet, rolling out and folding multiple sheets of clay, much like kneading a pizza dough -- best of all, follow this 4000 year-old Sumerian recipe: “[quick], come here, take the clay, knead it, flatten it, [mix(?) it], roll it (like a ball), make it thick, make (the tablet)!”. Then, make your own stylus from a reed stalk, or just take ready-to-use chopsticks, and start writing: it’s simply a matter of pressing the stylus’ corner into the moist clay, the signs consisting of combinations of wedges and each wedge being obtained through a separate impression (fig. 16). There are three basic types of wedges: vertical, horizontal, and oblique; to pass from one to another and to determine the wedge’s length is all a matter of varying the stylus’ orientation to the tablet and the angle at which it meets the surface. Enjoy! (For an expanded “tutorial” and related material, see [[https://cuneiform.neocities.org/CWT/howtowritecuneiform.html]]) |
| |
| | |
| Fig. 2: The basic shape of wedge and stylus tip can be abstracted as tetrahedron and polyhedral cone respectively. | Fig. 2: The basic shape of wedge and stylus tip can be abstracted as tetrahedron and polyhedral cone respectively. |
| |
| Fig. 3: //Arundo////donax// (giant reed); possible ways to split the stalk in order to obtain a stylus (drawings by J. Marzahn and A. Bramanti). | Fig. 3: //Arundo donax// (giant reed); possible ways to split the stalk in order to obtain a stylus (drawings by J. Marzahn and A. Bramanti). |
| |
| Fig. 4: Close-up from the Old Babylonian tablet VAT 8136, with wedges displaying curved right-hand face and fibrous impressions on the left-hand face. | Fig. 4: Close-up from the Old Babylonian tablet VAT 8136, with wedges displaying curved right-hand face and fibrous impressions on the left-hand face. |
| Fig. 11: BM 131952, © Trustees of the British Museum. | Fig. 11: BM 131952, © Trustees of the British Museum. |
| |
| Fig. 12: Left to right and top to bottom: BM 124955, © Trustees of the British Museum, after J. Reade, //Assyrian Scultpure//, 1983, 33; Burrell Collection, Glasgow, 28.33, after Barnett //et al//., //Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh//, London 1998, 84 Pl. 222; Nahr-al-Kalb relief of Esarhaddon, after VS 1 //Beiheft//, Pl. 8; BKR 96; Sam’al stela of Esarhaddon at the //Vorderasiatisches////Museum//, Berlin. | Fig. 12: Left to right and top to bottom: BM 124955, © Trustees of the British Museum, after J. Reade, //Assyrian Scultpure//, 1983, 33; Burrell Collection, Glasgow, 28.33, after Barnett //et al//., //Sculptures from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh//, London 1998, 84 Pl. 222; Nahr-al-Kalb relief of Esarhaddon, after VS 1 //Beiheft//, Pl. 8; BKR 96; Sam’al stela of Esarhaddon at the //Vorderasiatisches Museum//, Berlin. |
| |
| Fig 13: After G. Jendritzki, //Zur// //Restaurierung und Technologie des Bronzekreuzes VA 5379//, Baghdader Mitteilungen 28, 1997, 239-243. | Fig 13: After G. Jendritzki, //Zur// //Restaurierung und Technologie des Bronzekreuzes VA 5379//, Baghdader Mitteilungen 28, 1997, 239-243. |
