ABSTRACT
In Mesopotamia dating from around the eighth millennium BCE recurring shapes of clay ‘counters’ are found and a little later the same shapes are found impressed on clay. These are the forerunners of the cuneiform system of writing which arose late in the fourth millennium BCE. Children of wealthy parents attended scribal schools, i.e. schools where the emphasis was on learning cuneiform and, to a lesser extent, mathematics. Students had to learn long lists of plants, animals and rocks; and they had to memorise long passages of poems and tales of gods, heroes and wars. A comparison of the Old Persian and the Babylonian acted like a ‘Rosetta Stone’ leading to the beginnings of the decipherment of the Babylonian. But in some of this inscription, no Babylonian words could be found to explain the syllabic values given to particular signs.
