Cuneiform Cookies

Cuneiform is one of the oldest writing systems. It evolved in Mesopotamia about 3200 B.C. and lasted in various forms for over three thousand years.

Some years ago I read an Instructable on making cuneiform cookies and thought that it was marvelous.

I recently came across a video about the numbering system associated with the script which was utterly fascinating. I knew that the Babylonians had used a base-60 numbering system, which was the origin of western clocks and degrees, but had no knowledge of how that was expressed.

An aunt of mine, whose career had taken her to various archaeological sites where such things were found, is about to celebrate a significant birthday, and so I decided to make Babylonian Birthday Biscuits in her honor (honour).

N.B. Cuneiform numbers, I get. Babylonian dates, not so much, so this Instructable just tells you how to write western dates in cuneiform. I might write a Mark II 'ible if I ever study the Babylonian calendar in sufficient depth.

For the cutter and stamp:-

3-D printer

For the shortbread:-

Butter

Flour

Sugar

The video showed the two different types of indentation being made by manipulating a thin rod and then pressing it into the clay at different orientations. To make a stamp which impressed many different symbols at the same time, I needed to produce two different shapes which could then be duplicated in TinkerCad to produce the desired effect.

Following from the method used by the lecturer in the video, I took a cube in TinkerCad, rotated round it by 45 degrees and then tilted it downwards a 23 degrees. This gave a nicely shaped dimple which looked good for the "ten" columns.

For the single numbers, I took a cube, rotated it up by 45 degrees to give a "V" and then angled one end down by 12 degrees. This produced a single groove which looked too narrow, so I increased the angle-down to 22 degrees and than looked OK.

The indentation shapes were mounted on other blocks in TinkerCad, sleeved in a hole to tidy up and then merged with a block at the bottom to give something for a hand to grip.

The two different test pieces which I printed out are shown in the first photograph.with the final shape shown on the right.

Testing was done into a block of home-made play-doh-like stuff. I'm afraid that I can't credit the Instructible which gave the recipe for that as I've forgotten which one I used, but there are several and they're all quite similar.

The first photograph above shows the set of indentations which I wanted for the stamp. This was made for a friend who had recently had a birthday on the seventh of February, 1951.

If you watch the video given in the introduction, you'll understand how the numbers work, but basically, instead of thousands, hundreds, tens and ones, numbers are organised into six-hundreds, sixties, tens and ones.

Numbers in the "six-hundreds" and the "tens" columns are represented by left-pointing broad arrows (look like) while numbers in the "sixties" and "ones" columns are represented by downward pointing thin arrows (look like).

To get the cuneiform representation of 1951, take 1951 and divide it by six hundred. This gives 3.25166......
Taking only the whole number, gives "3", so we need a "3" in the six-hundreds column.

Three times six hundred is 1800, so subtract that from 1951 (151) and then divide that by sixty, giving 2.51666...
Taking only the whole number gives "2" so we need a "2" in the sixties column.

Two times sixty is 120. Subtracting that from 151 gives us 31. Dividing that by ten gives 3.1.
Taking only the whole number gives "3" so we need a "3" in the tens column.

Three times ten is thirty. Subtracting that from 31 gives us 1, so we need a "1" in the ones column.

That is pressed into the dough in the first photograph, so let's check that it's right.

In the example piece of dough, the upper row shows three "six hundreds", two "sixties", three "tens" and a single "one". Adding that lot together gives:-

3x600 = 1800
2x60 = 120
3x10 = 30
1x1 =1
TOTAL 1951

Yay!

The months and days are a lot easier, because they can only go as high as 12 and 31 respectively.

Now that we know what 1951 looks like in cuneiform, we need to build the stamp to impress that.

The photograph above shows the evolution of the design.

I built the stamp in TinkerCad, but I made it facing upwards so that I could see the stamps. This meant that I had to mentally flip the stamp over as I was drawing it, which made my head hurt.

The test, prototype and finished pieces are all shown laid out above. As discussed in "Designing the Indentations", the two test pieces for the shapes are in the top left of the photograph. Also on the top row was the first attempt at the assembled numbers. This was made in the default size from the TinkerCad model, but was far too large to make cookies (biscuits). It was a good way of seeing things in over-scale though.

The first attempt at a proper stamp is in the lower-left of the photograph. This turned out to be too big too, but did help to focus in on what would be a correct size. The the dividing lines used to separate the month and day from the year had been too deep and intrusive in the first attempt, and also too flimsy, so they were reduced in height but increased in width for this one.

Once the final size was decided on, the last stamp (and associated cutter) were printed. One wonder of TinkerCad was the ability to resize before generating the STL.

To produce future, different dated, designs I produced a TinkerCad model which had the base and dividers of the stamp, the cutter and the two different shaped indentation-makers. It will be easy to add them all together as required to make whatever date you wish.

It is very bad form to quote oneself, but to quote my Rat-Onna-Stick instructable:-

"This recipe is based on Joanie Zisk's at One Dish Kitchen. I tried several "small batch" recipes, before I found this one which worked.
https://onedishkitchen.com/small-batch-shortbread..."

I claim no credit for this shortbread recipe, but am happy to thank the author for sharing their work.

I'm sure that you will have a preferred shortbread recipe, so please feel free to use it. The key requirements here are that the dough must not spread significantly while baking, and that the finished product looks a little bit like a clay tablet.

Follow the recipe (or your own one):-

57g (1/4 cup) butter
1/2 cup white flour
3 tablespoons white sugar
extra flour for dusting
extra sugar for dusting

Cream the butter and sugar.
Add the flour in stages and mix until a crumby dough.
Roll out, cut, stamp and bake at 165C(325F) for 13 to 15 minutes.

The thickness of the rolled-out dough is absolutely critical. In the fourth photograph above, the cookie (biscuit) nearest the camera is thick, the three on the left of the photograph are thin and the two on the top row are intermediate.

I made them in different thicknesses to get an idea of what best suited the project and the medium thickness ones were unquestionably the best looking. The thicker the dough, the less it darkens during cooking, and the more likely it is to crack. The thinner the dough, the more likely it is to burn and crumble. I'm sure that you have baked more shortbread than I have, and so you will not need to be told how to suck eggs.

Once the baking is done, lay the results on a wire tray to cool. I tried brushing cocoa powder onto two cookies (biscuits) in the sixth photograph above. Please see the next step for details on why this was sub optimal.

As can be seen in the photographs above, my cunning plan to dust the biscuits with cocoa powder and then brush it into the indentations proved to be significantly less cunning than a fox who had just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Cambridge University.

I took the baking tray out at the half-way point of the cooking to add the cocoa powder, so that it would not adsorb too much of the melting butter, but unfortunately I neglected to allow the part-baked biscuits to cool before doing that, and so the cocoa immediately melted into a sticky (albeit tasty) mess. I remain convinced that the technique could be used if only I could remember to allow the part-baked biscuits to cook completely, then brush on the powder, then complete the cooking.

The thickness of the dough is absolutely vital to the result looking good. Too thick is probably easier to handle as the biscuits can be put back into the oven for a couple of extra minutes and cracks just add character, but overbaking the thin dough really does produce something which is a bit of a burnt offering.

Finally, the way in which multiple indentations are used to build a number (e.g. "7") caused a minor slip. I arranged the indents with successive ones on a slight rising trajectory (as in the video) but when the stamp was inverted and used, the resulting indents were on a downward line. I'm sure that no-one will notice.