How the Ancient Sumerians Created the World’s First Writing System

I loved this article by Bartle Bull in LitHub with fascinating detail on how the Sumerians developed writing. It’s from his book Land Between the Rivers: A 5,000-Year History of Iraq. Infectious enthusiasm. And with this period of history so relatively unexplored in fiction (compared to say, ancient Egypt), I get a little giddy thinking of all the stories I want to tell.

Do People Really Look Like Cora?

In the book I’ve described Cora as having a deep tan skin color and hair that matches—the result of having a towheaded English father a and darker Egyptian mother. Then I had more than one moment of self-doubt as I wondered whether the kind of complexion I pictured in my mind actually existed in nature.

Most people who are simultaneously blond (or with medium brown hair) and deeply tan aren’t getting there naturally.

J Lo is not Cora. And though she is beautiful, that did not happen without a small army of beauticians.

I went looking online for examples and googling for “blond tan woman” gave me mostly AI generated results. They remind me of the “very tan blond woman giving a press conference” pics that I’ve been seeing in ads from Lendgo. (There’s a more deeply tanned version of this that I just spent an hour trying to find again and it’s driving me fucking nuts that I can’t.)

Lendgo lady is also not Cora.

My validation came from an article I stumbled on while doing a little research on Egyptian make-up (specifically, could Cora have worn kohl eyeliner as part of her Cleopatra costume?). CNN has a beautiful article on the cultural significance of kohl that included an image of a young Gazan girl having kohl applied that made me think “that is Cora! She would look like that!”

It’s all there. The deeply tan skin, the naturally highlighted hair that alternates between blond and brown. The gray/blue eyes.

(I tracked down more of the photographer’s pics from the Getty source here.)

I would like to be confident enough in my storytelling to not need validation. Until then, I’m happy to have it. It was also nice that even the dimpled chin on that little girl matched the more recent AI looks that I’ve tried out for Cora (like this possible look for her at the ball).

That is Cora.

(I know the neckline makes neither historical nor physical sense. AI just really loves boobs. But the face and hair and skin really work!)

I’m aware of the irony of ranting against AI ruining Google Search while also playing with it myself. If there’s one defense I can offer, it’s this: I’m not trying to game anybody’s algorithm. I’m not generating a million different images of top search terms and stuffing my site full of them. And I’m not trying to sell you low-effort “content” to make a quick buck. My promise to my readers remains the same. My writing is 100% me, and no part of it is generated by AI.

Monetization

Since I launched my website and started sharing my writing, the algorithms have figured out I’m trying to build an audience, and decided to shovel me mountains of dreck on becoming an influencer. That made this poem from Brian Bilston resonate all the more:

The ad said
MONETISE YOUR FOLLOWERS
so he thought
he would respond

by painting them
in the changing light,
like waterlilies
in a pond.

Brian is worth following on Facebook, if you can endure constant attacks of “God I wish I had written that.”

UPDATE FROM A MONTH LATER

I found it! The Lendgo blondes finally popped up on my Firefox homepage again. They’re still not Cora.