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ManannanMacLir74 t1_ja62bcr wrote

Reply to comment by khinzaw in 4,500-year-old Sumerian temple dedicated to mighty thunder god discovered in Iraq. by Rifletree

Scholarship used to say cuneiform is about 300 years older than hieroglyphics supposedly but I fail to see how they came to these dates and timelines

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hereforstories8 t1_ja6l4ud wrote

Not going to argue the points here, but typically “I fail to see/don’t think/understand . . .” is not a good argument.

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ManannanMacLir74 t1_ja7kay1 wrote

Typically not understanding that many dates in ancient timeliness are not set in stone and speculative is a good place to start

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hereforstories8 t1_ja9wit1 wrote

Well understanding where you fail to understand is a good place to start.

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ManannanMacLir74 t1_ja9z308 wrote

Understanding that most timelines are guessing is a great place to start and don't get me started on radio carbon dating

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khinzaw t1_ja63k1w wrote

Because the oldest known cuneiform is dated to be older than the oldest known hieroglyphics. The earliest Cuneiform is dated back to around 3500 BCE while the earliest Hieroglyphics are dated to around 3400-3200 BCE. Both have some amount of proto-language going earlier but it is unclear how developed they were.

Additionally, Sumerian script has a long evolutionary history that goes back to 8000 BCE that can be traced, while hieroglyphics seem to have sprung into use comparitively suddenly. This is why some scholars say that even if hieroglyphics are a fully independent system, it is possible cuneiform still stimulated that creation of a writing system.

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