Ancient cuneiform writing on tablet.
Ancient cuneiform writing on tablet.

What is…
cuneiform writing

Cuneiform is an ancient system of writing using wedge-shaped characters impressed into clay, wax, or stone tablets with a wedge-shaped, pointed or rounded stylus. The earliest known cuneiform writing is in the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). The cuneiform script developed from earlier pictographic writing, making writing easier and faster.

Like pottery, cuneiform clay tablets were fired in kilns to make them hard and permanent.

Akkadian cuneiform

The ancient language of Akkadians was written in cuneiform and named after the city of Accad (Akkad).

Elamite cuneiform

Elamite cuneiform was a simplified form of the Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, used to write the Elamite language. This was done in what is now modern Iran from the 3rd millennium BC to the 4th century BC. The earliest known Elamite cuneiform text is a treaty between Akkadians and the Elamites that dates to 2200 BC.1 Some believe it might have been in use since 2500 BC.2

Old Persian cuneiform

Old Persian cuneiform
Old Persian cuneiform for the word “king”

The people of Persia wrote in Old Persian cuneiform, “a nearly alphabetical simple form of the ancient cuneiform scripts (36 phonetic characters and 8 logograms) which was designed and used by the early Achaemenid rulers from the 6th century BC.”

Places that used cuneifom writing in ancient times include:

  1. Margaret Khačikjan, The Elamite language (1998).
  2. Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, The World's Writing Systems, (Oxford University Press: 1996).

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Article Version: June 24, 2024