As part of the Türkiye Kültür Yolu Festival organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the city of Samsun—the fourth stop of the event—is hosting a series of engaging activities for children. Among them, the “Writing Names in Cuneiform on Clay Workshop” held at the Samsun Museum attracted considerable attention from young participants.
The workshop was led by Associate Professor Dr. Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, a faculty member from the Department of Archaeology in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMU). Together with the children, Dr. Yılmaz facilitated a hands-on and educational activity that also aimed to raise historical awareness.
Dr. Yılmaz noted that the activity began with a brief conversation with the children about the origins and evolution of writing:
“We discussed how writing was born, how it evolved, and how it came to be what it is today. Then we handed out clay tablets and styluses—special writing tools—to the children. Using syllable charts in Akkadian, they spelled out their names and inscribed them onto the clay tablets in cuneiform.”
Emphasizing the importance of such activities in delivering academic knowledge to the wider community, Dr. Yılmaz said:
“We’re not only developing manual skills, but also instilling historical awareness. Keeping children's curiosity about the past alive is incredibly valuable to us. At OMU, we will continue our efforts to foster a love of archaeology.”
One of the participants, first-grade student Melisa Bayram, expressed her excitement about the cuneiform workshop:
“We learned cuneiform here. I wrote ‘Melisa’ on my tablet and decorated it. It was so much fun,” she said.
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