cuneiform tablets
Ancient wedge-script slabs
Cuneiform tablets are clay slabs inscribed with wedge-shaped marks, the oldest known form of writing.
Ancient Mesopotamian scribes pressed a stylus into wet clay to record laws, business transactions, stories, and administrative records.
The Epic of Gilgamesh survives on cuneiform tablets.
Thousands have been excavated, many still untranslated: The museum's collection includes cuneiform tablets from ancient Babylon.
- MesopotamiaTigris-Euphrates river region
- stylusPointed implement for marking
- syllabaryWriting using sound-units
- SumeriansAncient southern Mesopotamian people
- dead languagesLanguages without native speakers
Assyrians · Hammurabi · logograms · clay tablets · Behistun Inscription · Gilgamesh · decipherment · clay · fired clay · wedge-shaped · colophon · legal codes · Tigris · wedge · administration · writing · reed · temple
cuneiform tabletspapyrus scrolls
Rolled ancient reed documents
electronic documents · parchment · vellum · cloud storage · magnetic tape
cuneiform tabletsLatin script
Western alphabetic writing system
hieroglyphics · digital text · printed books · binary code · phonetic alphabet
cuneiform tabletsverbal communication
Exchange through spoken language