Reed stylus
Estilo de caña (cálamo) para escribir
- Date
- c. 3200 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Uruk, Sumer, Iraq
- Credited to
- Sumerians
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A reed stalk cut to a triangular point that, pressed into clay, leaves the characteristic wedges of cuneiform. The shape of the tool determined the shape of the script for three millennia.
The use of the reed as a brush in Egypt (rush pen) is a parallel development adapted to papyrus.
What it led to
- Stylisation of pictographs into abstract wedges, accelerating writing
- Standardisation of calligraphy and the training of scribes
- Fast writing that made daily administration viable
Built on
- Clay tabletc. 3300 BCE
- Use of the reed
Made possible
- Cuneiform writingc. 3200 BCE
- Quill penc. century VI-VII
- Egyptian reed pen