The Mesopotamian civilization of the Sumerians was the first of its kind to develop a written language. Whereas the spoken word worked for a time it became necessary to develop a way in which information could be recorded at first it was simple pictograph's and, over time a script was developed called cuneiform.
Scribes were taught at an early age and although the school had a headmaster students were taught by older students and flattery and bribes were a necessity to avoid beatings from . And as with everything in the ancient world Scribes had their own goddess Nisaba but in later years it would change to the god Nabu (and yes I thought of Dr. Fate too). The scribes used basic tools for writing. The main tool was a reed stylus which was essentially a reed with the end cut off and this worked as a sort of pen. Now the Mesopotamians did not make papyrus like the Egyptians instead they used clay or wax tablets. They also used cylinder seals as signatures.
They also developed a written number system which these people's used for Science and mathematics. Which ultimatly enabled the peoples of this civilization to develop their own technology in order to create better life's for themselves.
Despite having a working alphabet they still kept some some pictographs to symbolize words and ideas. For example the symbol for barely (which you can see below) despite some changes it remained a picture representing a word rather than spelling out the word in the alphabet glyphs. It reminds me of Chinese and Japanese writing, whereas all of these have a working alphabet they use glyphs to represent words or ideas.
However, not everyone in Mesopotamia knew how to read and write, only a few were taught this trade Dubsar's or Scribes. Scibes not only held a high place in the hierarchy of Mesopotamian Society, they were also greatly respected as scholars. Their job was to kept record of everything from daily events and trade to astronomy and literature and it's mainly because of this that we know so much about this once great culture. One of the earliest surviving literature came from this culture, known as The Epic of Gilgamesh (which you can read here) which has not only been preserved all this time and translated to many languages but it has also been used over and over again in popular culture for example in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sources:
