The study, published in Antiquity, opens new perspectives on understanding the birth of writing and may help researchers not only to gain new insights into the meanings of the designs on cylinder seals but also to decipher many still-unknown signs in proto-cuneiform. The paper is titled "Seals and signs: tracing the origins of writing in ancient Southwest Asia."

"The conceptual leap from pre-writing symbolism to writing is a significant development in human cognitive technologies," explains Silvia Ferrara, professor in the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies at the University of Bologna and lead researcher.

"The invention of writing marks the transition between prehistory and history, and the findings of this study bridge this divide by illustrating how some late prehistoric images were incorporated into one of the earliest invented writing systems."

Among the first cities to emerge in Mesopotamia, Uruk was an immensely important center throughout the fourth millennium BCE, exerting influence over a large region extending from southwestern Iran to southeastern Turkey.

In this region, cylinder seals were created. Typically made of stone and engraved with a series of designs, these cylinders were rolled onto clay tablets, leaving a stamped impression of the design.