Writing in clay

activity session
Clay tablets were a widely-used writing surface in the ancient world, especially in the Near East and
Mesopotamia. The vast majority of Sumerian and Akkadian is preserved on clay, although we now
that Mesopotamians also wrote on other materials such as stone and metal and on objects other
than tablets, such as pottery. Clay tablets were also used in the Bronze Age Aegean for writing Linear
A and Linear B. It can be interesting to compare the similarities and differences between Aegean
and Mesopotamian tablets.

Making clay tablets is relatively easy and a good way of

understanding how the practicalities of writing can be
Materials significantly affected by the properties of the materials and
tools being used. Writing on clay is very different from writing
 Air-drying clay on paper, and different writing systems are suited to it to
 Newspaper different degrees.
 Implements to use as styli
(chopsticks for cuneiform;
skewers or cocktail sticks
Writing Cuneiform
for Linear B) The first step, just as with ancient apprentice scribes, is for
 Writing System students to learn how to shape a tablet. Cuneiform tablets vary
Worksheets in size considerably, but a good starter size is about the size of
a mobile phone and around a centimetre or so thick – though
they can be thicker. Mesoptamian tablets are often slightly ‘pillow-shaped’ with soft curves around
their edges rather than sharp corners.

Cuneiform – both Mesopotamian and alphabetic – is written left-

to-right starting at the top-left of the tablet, just like a modern
English page. However, when writers got to the end of one side
of their tablet they would usually flip it bottom-to-top to carry on
on the back, not right-to-left like we do. If they still didn’t have
enough space, writers might then continue on to the edges of
their tablets.

Ancient cuneiform was written with a variety of styli. Reeds were

often used, as were bone or metal styli. Some seem to have had
triangular cross-sections; others square. It seems to have
depended on what was available locally and on local writing
traditions. For writing alphabetic cuneiform, styli with square
cross-sections seem to have been the most common.
These can easily be approximated using the ‘wrong end’
of a chopstick. Ideally, you should use one with sharp,
well-defined corners.

Forming the cuneiform wedges can be challenging until

you get the hang of it. You need to press the corner of
the stylus into the clay at an angle. The three faces of the
stylus make the distinctive triangular shape of the
wedge. All the cuneiform signs are made in this way, with combinations of wedges. A typical early
exercise for ancient apprentices was just to practise making wedges. Once they’d mastered that,
they might try writing individual signs, or even a whole alphabet. These are also good first steps for
modern students! Once they have mastered them, they might try writing their names, or English
words, as if the script is a kind of code.

Information on the signs and their meanings is available on the Alphabetic Cuneiform worksheet.

Writing Linear B
Aegean clay tablets are similar in general to Near Eastern ones, but have a number of important
differences. They come in two distinct shapes – ‘page-shaped’ (left) and ‘palm leaf-shaped’ (right).

As the name suggests, Linear B is a linear script rather than a cuneiform one: you make signs by
drawing the stylus through the clay rather than pressing it in. In this respect, it’s more like using a
pen, although the material properties of the clay adds complications. Consequently, Linear B uses a
very different kind of stylus to make its signs. There’s an ongoing debate about exactly what was
used, but it was clearly thin and pointed – perhaps a long thorn or sharpened bone or metal needle.
Cocktail sticks make for good modern equivalents (or bamboo skewers can be better for smaller
hands). These can be used like pens to copy the shape of the sign into the clay.

For guidance on how Linear B works, and the basic signs, see the Linear B worksheet.
Questions to think about

 How are the shapes of signs suited to writing on clay? Would cuneiform be easier or harder
to write on a different material such as paper or stone?

 How are the different kinds of stylus different to use? Could you use a cuneiform stylus for
Linear B or a Linear B stylus for cuneiform? Would it make writing easier or harder?

 How well-suited is our alphabet to writing on clay?

 What are the advantages and disadvantages of writing on clay compared to paper?

Related Resources
 Ancient writing system worksheets: https://crewsproject.wordpress.com/write-
your-name-in-an-ancient-writing-system/

 Write With CREWS videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwiz1JZT1QI&list=PLes44BaWMOqPFrowz8J
A_oDo6c1rDHyHI