How did cuneiform affect Mesopotamian civilizations?

As a form of writing, cuneiform gave Mesopotamian civilizations a means of keeping accurate records and, after the development of phonetic writing, expressing abstract ideas in writing. This had profound consequences, which included:

• the rise of a small literate class that led to increased social specialization and bureaucracy.


• the ability to record historical events for posterity. These could be, and often were, used to demonstrate the power and therefore legitimacy of Mesopotamian rulers.


• the ability...

As a form of writing, cuneiform gave Mesopotamian civilizations a means of keeping accurate records and, after the development of phonetic writing, expressing abstract ideas in writing. This had profound consequences, which included:

• the rise of a small literate class that led to increased social specialization and bureaucracy.


• the ability to record historical events for posterity. These could be, and often were, used to demonstrate the power and therefore legitimacy of Mesopotamian rulers.


• the ability to record religious stories, poetry, perpetuating culture.


• the keeping of more accurate records, especially tax receipts, which enabled the expansion of state power.


• the recording of laws (which famously happened with Hammurabi's Code) in order to standardize and legitimize the power of the state.


• record astronomical and other observations, including river levels, seasonal weather variations, and so on.

In short, the invention of cuneiform, and especially phonograms, was a crucial step in the evolving complexity of Mesopotamian societies. It also, happily for modern archaeologists and historians, tells us much more about them than we would otherwise know.