, which means heaven, appears in early texts in the form
in which its star-like form is quite evident (star = heaven) and from which the linear form
may be not improbably pre-supposed. A number of other cases were enumerated by the Assyrians themselves (see Cuneiform Texts from Bab. Tab. in Brit. Museum, vol. v., 1898), and there can be no reasonable doubt that this is the origin of the script.
The number of the original picture-signs cannot have been great, but the development of new signs never ceased till the cuneiform script passed wholly from use. The simplest form of development was doubling, to express plurality Development and characteristics. or intensity. After this came the working of two signs into one; thus
“water,” when placed in
