Developmental stages of writing
The Sumerians did not limit themselves to inventing writing, but rather developed it and made it a successful tool for recording and conveying ideas. This writing went through stages, which are as follows:
Moot stage
Symbolic stage
Vocal stage
1- The vocal stage
The cuneiform script began with a pictorial form consisting of signs representing the things to be recorded, that is, each picture represented a word. For example, the ancient Mesopotamian writer expressed the word “fish” by drawing a picture of it, and he also expressed the word “foot” by drawing a picture of the foot, and so on..
This stage is considered one of the oldest stages in the history of writing, and examples of it have reached us from the fourth layer of Uruk, written in this type and containing economic texts and tables with the names of materials that were sufficient to perform the required purpose.
A stone tablet with pictorial writing containing an economic text from the city of Kish (Tel al-Ahmir) was also found.
Iraq Civilization Series
Part One - 1985 Edition
Source: websites