The Art of History: Students Dive Into Ancient Writing System by Creating Cuneiform Tablets

Forget pencils, pens, and keyboards. Students in David Kongstvedt’s History 9 classes traded their standard writing utensils for a chance to experience the world’s earliest form of writing. 

In their current unit, “Societies,” students are learning about Mesopotamia, one of the oldest civilizations on Earth and its ancient writing system, which existed for thousands of years. This system was very different from our own; it consisted of complex wedge-shaped marks that were pressed into soft clay to represent everything from tax receipts to poems, even angry correspondence. “There's a reason this system was in place for millennia before the introduction of paper. It works,” David said. According to David, some of the most famous and enduring pieces of cuneiform art are actually discarded school tablets—clay writing and doodles that were created and then thrown away by the Mesopotamian equivalent of students. 

Field’s History and Visual and Performing Arts Departments co-led this activity. David and Ceramics Teacher Jack McDermott ’08 have been discussing this collaboration for years, but it finally came to fruition during an August professional development session focused on transdisciplinary learning. With help from Ceramics Teacher Charlie Botzman, they brought this ancient writing system to life in the classroom.

“It has been really fun collaborating with Jack and Charlie on this experience,” David shared. “It's been fascinating seeing them bring their expertise into the classroom, from explaining how the clay works to modeling creating cuneiform marks with a stylus to helping them keep the space clean for the next group.”

One of the most challenging aspects of this assignment for students is recreating some of the symbols because of their complexity and detail, particularly some of the more advanced versions of the writing system. “Initially it was borderline drawings but as it moved on, it looked more and more like a different type of writing, so even though it wasn’t as easy to decipher it was more legible in terms of knowing what it was inherently,” Emma ’30 explained. 

Anna ’30 said she gained a lot of insight into how the writing system works and how it evolved over time. “From a writing system, you can see a lot more into life. At first it was just used for trading but then it grew and it evolved, and I thought that was really cool,” she said. 

This cross-department collaboration is a central tenet of Field’s Vision for Teaching and Learning, and David says it also reflects how ancient civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, approached their work. “The ancient peoples that we are studying in our first semester did not differentiate between subjects like art and history in the way that we do. For them, making artistic pieces, learning about their past, preparing for their future, and writing down records were all one activity bound up in the needs and desires of their society,” David shared. 

David says he hopes to continue doing collaborative projects like this one because it emphasizes the idea that art is everywhere and it is a part of everything that we do. “History is the story of every human being, including our most ancient ancestors and ourselves. All of art is history, and all of history is art,” David said.