Cuneiform Project

Step One: These are the supplies we needed for our project. Sculpting clay to form the tablets. A wooden stylus to carve the letters. We also had the cuneiform alphabet for reference.

Step Two: Next we kneaded the clay. We kneaded until the clay was nice and soft. As you can see, Payton did a pretty good job.

Step Three: Then, we shaped the clay into a block to make a nice flat surface for us to write on.

Step Four: After we flattened out our cubes, we carved in our first name initial. That tablet has a “P” for Payton.

Step Five: We carved the letters with a wooden stylus, just like the Mesopotamians. Ava was able to fit her whole name!

Step Six: Next we put the tablets in the oven… sorry you can’t eat them.

Step Seven: This is the finished stage of the tablets. That was a cool project. I sure did like learning how the Mesopotamians wrote their letters. Now I know why the Mesopotamians praised scribes so much, it was so hard to write just one letter! Imagine writing a whole book, it would take you much longer than an afternoon. Did you know in ancient Mesopotamia that scribes studied for twelve years at a school called an Edubba?

I’d like to thank my Mom for buying the supplies and taking all the wonderful photos on this page.

Thanks Mom. Love, Jack.

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6 thoughts on “Cuneiform Project”

vanessa says:

October 6, 2010 at 2:06 am

Great job Jack! I can’t figure out how to fix the layout of this post. I will ask Daddy to look at it. Love, Mom

Reply
1. vanessa says:
  
  October 6, 2010 at 6:35 pm
  
  I hope daddy can fix the layout thanks for leaving a comment. I was pretty fun typing on the blog. JACK
  
  Reply
Cmccormick says:

October 6, 2010 at 6:52 pm

Jack- I enjoyed reading your blog. I am impressed by the variety of sentence structure. Asking questions to your readers is a good writing strategy. (of course in moderation) You have used some long and some short sentences; this creates a good flow for the reader. Well done.

Reply
peterbrogan says:

October 7, 2010 at 12:52 am

Finding out the real meaning of “edubba” might reveal quite a bit about the Mesopitanian views on education.

Reply
mm says:

October 8, 2010 at 4:15 am

mmmmm – cuneiform cookies – my fave!!
.maria

I really like the waterfall layout of the page.
michael

Reply
1. jack says:
  
  October 13, 2010 at 1:54 pm
  
  The layout wasn’t supposed to be that way. Something went wacky and it messed up the whole layout. I’m glad you like it though. I knew someone would like it. Thanks for the comment. JACK
  
  Reply