WEBVTT

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It is referred to as the cushion clay
tablet and it is believed to have been

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made around 2600 BC. This tablet
shows the details of the transaction

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of grains. The upper part means
135,000 liters.

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This is the item in question: barley.
They drew it as it is.

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The left side represents the terms
of the transaction. It says 37 months.

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This tablet is a record that somebody
lent or borrowed 135,000 liters of

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barley for a period of 37 months. 
What, then, do these symbols mean?

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According to research, the sound represented
by these symbols is coushem.

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Unlike the other symbols found on 
these ancient relics, the meaning

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of these are a mystery.

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The two signs in these early tablets,
coushem, are puzzling because

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they don't mean anything.

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Um, these two signs individually
each have a meaning but together

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they don't seem to mean anything.

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And so, it's been suggested quite
plausibly that this is somebody's name.

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That somebody wrote these two signs
because the name sounded the same way.

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A coom sign meaning something, and a shim sign
meaning something else but together

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just somebody's name.

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The phonetic symbols coo and shim
came together to form cooshim,

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a symbol that represents a sound. 
This marked the beginning of salavak writing.

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It was the birth of rebus writing system.
A single example of rebus can be found

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using a car and a cat. This representation,

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however, does not mean a car and a cat.
The sounds of the words represented

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by these pictographs, car and pet, could
be used to mean something completely

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different. In this case, carpet. 
These symbols, meaningless by

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themselves, come together to form a word.
This type of writing system is known a rebus,

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a representation of words in the form
of pictures or symbols.

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In the modern era this concept 
is seen as quite simple and basic

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but for people in ancient times the 
adoption of a rebus writing system

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was a truly revolutionary development.

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With the adoption of more complex rebuses,
the number of cuneiforms ranged from

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about 1500 to about 600. The previously 
complicated pictures became simpler.

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More advanced forms of cuneiform
were found in relics north of Moor.

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The most famous among them were 
from the poor.