Moreover, the archaic forms of the characters, many of which under the
Sumerians still retained resemblances to the pictures of objects from
which they were descended, were considerably changed. The lines, of
which they were originally composed, gave way to wedges, and the number
of the wedges of which each sign consisted was gradually diminished, so
that in the time of the Assyrians and the later Babylonians many of the
characters bore small resemblance to the ancient Sumerian forms
from which they had been derived. The reading of Sumerian and early
Babylonian inscriptions by the late Assyrian scribes was therefore an
accomplishment only to be acquired as the result of long study, and it
is interesting to note that as an assistance to the reading of these
early texts the scribes compiled lists of archaic signs. Sometimes
opposite each archaic character they drew a picture of the object from
which they imagined it was derived. This fact is significant as proving
that the Assyrian scribes recognized the pictorial origin of cuneiform
writing, but the pictures they drew opposite the signs are rather
fanciful, and it cannot be said that their guesses were very successful.
That we are able to criticize the theories of the Assyrians as to the
origin and forms of the early characters is in the main due to M.
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