Cuneiform Writing

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Cuneiform writing emerged from the practice of making clay tokens to record economic transactions, which became more numerous and complicated with the growth of agriculture and early civilizations in the ancient Near East (fourth millennium BC)

Eventually tokens were replaced with tablets in various forms which were later marked with pictographs and later (about 2800 BC) with formalized abstract writing known as cuneiform.

The word "cuneiform" means wedge-shaped, derived from Latin when scholars in the 1700s began attempting to translate the inscriptions on thousands of clay tablets unearthed by archeologists.

The latest known cuneiform dates to AD 75.

During its 3,000 years of use, cuneiform writing recorded at least 15 different languages, including Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian.

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