The proto-cuneiform script was a system of proto-writing that emerged in Mesopotamia c. 3350–3200 BC (during the Uruk period), eventually developing into the early cuneiform script used in the region's Early Dynastic I period.
The proto-cuneiform script was a system of proto-writing that emerged in Mesopotamia c. 3350–3200 BC (during the Uruk period), eventually developing into the early cuneiform script used in the region's Early Dynastic I period.
It arose from the token-based system that had already been in use across the region in preceding millennia. Other precursors of this system include clay bullae containing tokens, and numerical tablets using only numeral signs. Those devices were used in the institutions of Mesopotamia and western Iran during the 4th millennium BC, in order to record administrative operations. The proto-cuneiform subsequently appeared in southern Mesopotamia, during the 34th century BC. This system is documented by around 5,000 clay tablets coming from various sites, dating from c. 3350 BC to 3000 BC.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).