The proto-cuneiform script was a system of proto-writing that emerged in Mesopotamia , eventually developing into the early cuneiform script used in the region's Early Dynastic I period.
It arose from the token-based system that had already been in use across the region in preceding millennia. While it is known definitively that later cuneiform was used to write the Sumerian language , it is still uncertain what the underlying language of proto-cuneiform texts was. During the 9th millennium BC, a token-based system came into use in various parts of the ancient Near East. These evolved into marked tokens, and then into marked envelopes now known as clay bullae.
These tokens continued to be used, even after the development of proto-cuneiform and Proto-Elamite. The earliest tablets found, in the Uruk V period c. They consist only of lists of numbers associated with 18 known signs circles, triangles etc , sometimes sealed. It has been suggested that they appeared as early as the Uruk IV period and remained in use until the Uruk IVa period.
A few unprovenanced tablets are held in private collections. Proto-cuneiform emerged in what is now labeled the Uruk IV period c.
The script slowly evolved over time, with signs changing and merging. With the advent of the Early Dynastic period c.
