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Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions (Latin: cuneus) which form their signs. Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system [5] [6] and was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).
The proto-cuneiform script was a system of proto-writing that emerged in Mesopotamia, eventually developing into the early cuneiform script used in the region's Early Dynastic I period. It arose from the token-based system that had already been in use across the region in preceding millennia.
In 1700 Thomas Hyde first called the inscriptions "cuneiform", but deemed that they were no more than decorative friezes. [15] Proper attempts at deciphering Old Persian cuneiform started with faithful copies of cuneiform inscriptions, which first became available in 1711 when duplicates of Darius's inscriptions were published by Jean Chardin ...
A link exists between 6,000-year-old engravings on cylindrical seals used on clay tablets and cuneiform, the world’s oldest writing system, according to new research.
The four original inventions of writing are recognized in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and the Mayan culture
Finally, cuneiform became a general-purpose writing system with logograms, syllables, and numerals. From the 26th century BC, the system was adapted to write the Akkadian language, and from there to others, such as Hurrian and Hittite. Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian. [36]
Writing has been invented independently multiple times in human history—first emerging between 3400 and 3200 BC during the Early Bronze Age, with cuneiform, a system invented in southern Mesopotamia to write the Sumerian language, considered to be the earliest true writing. Cuneiform was closely followed by Egyptian hieroglyphs.
At the time the Ugaritic script was in use (c. 1300–1190 BCE), [10] Ugarit, although not a great cultural or imperial centre, was located at the geographic centre of the literate world, among Egypt, Anatolia, Cyprus, Crete, and Mesopotamia. Ugaritic combined the system of the Semitic abjad with cuneiform writing methods (pressing a stylus ...