cuneiform writing
Ancient Mesopotamian script
Cuneiform writing is one of the earliest known writing systems, developed in ancient Mesopotamia around 3400 BCE.
The name comes from the Latin for "wedge-shaped," describing the distinctive marks made by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay tablets.
Originally pictographic, it evolved into abstract wedge patterns representing syllables and concepts, used for Sumerian, Akkadian, and other languages until the early centuries CE.
- MesopotamiaTigris-Euphrates river region
- Fertile CrescentMideast arc where civilization began
- clay tabletsInscribed earthen slabs
- SumeriansAncient southern Mesopotamian people
- stylusPointed implement for marking
ancient scribes · epic poetry · decipherment · dead languages · royal inscriptions · excavations · archaeological digs · Behistun Inscription · Akkadians · scribes · religious texts · logograms · orthography · Babylonians · phonetic symbols · museum collections · Assyrians · Code of Hammurabi
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