Royal Inscription Of Naram-Sîn Of Akkad: The First Ancient King To Use Blocks For Printing Bricks

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - The oldest evidence of printing is the stamping of inscriptions into the soft clay of bricks before firing. This was done by Sumerian Naram-Sîn of Akkad who not only built the temple of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility and warfare, but he was also the first ancient king to use blocks for printing. Prior to Naram-Sîn the inscriptions on the bricks were written by hand.

Naram-Sîn reigned 2261-2224 B.C and was the last great king of the Akkadian Empire. He was grandson of Sargon the Great who reigned 2334-2279 B.C who founded the empire. Naram-Sîn is considered the most important Akkadian king after Sargon.

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, c. 2230 BC. It shows him defeating the Lullibi, a tribe in the Zagros Mountains, trampling them and spearing them. He is also twice the size of his soldiers. In the 12th century BC it was taken to Susa, where it was found in 1898.

According to historical records, blockprinting on paper started in China in the 7th century. Unfortunately no examples survived and the oldest surviving printing was found in the Buddhist temple Pulguk-sa, Kyongju, Korea. It is a small dharani scroll printed 704-751, until then considered the oldest printing in the world.

World’s first known movable type printing was a Chinese invention. The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng (990-1051 AD) created the world’s first known movable type system for printing. His printing system was invented between 1041 and 1048 during the Song dynasty.

Royal Inscription Of Naram-Sîn. Image credit: The Schoyen Collection

There are currently three known brick printing blocks of Naram-Sîn. One is part of the the Schoyen Collection. The other is in the British Museum and one intact with a cylindrical handle is in Istanbul, Turkey. These 3 brick stamps with the known bricks, is the earliest evidence of printing, in this case blindprinting on soft clay.

The “Royal Inscription Of Naram-Sîn” dates back to 2291-2254 B.C. This ancient brick printing block with a large loop handle measures 13x13x10 cm and has three lines written in a large formal cuneiform script.

Written by - Ellen Lloyd AncientPages.com

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