cuneiform

Also known as Sumero-Akkadia cuneiform, cuneiform script, cuneiform writing, arrow-headed characters, Xsux

Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the 1st century BC. Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions () which form their signs. Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system and was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

AI overview

Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system, developed in ancient Mesopotamia to record the Sumerian language, and it features distinctive wedge-shaped marks that give it its name. This writing system remained in active use for thousands of years, from the early Bronze Age until the 1st century BC, and was adapted to write several different languages across the ancient Near East.

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Key facts

Writing system.type: Logographic
Writing system.typedesc: and syllabary
Writing system.languages: Sumerian, Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Hurrian, Luwian, Urartian, Palaic, Old Aramaic, Ugaritic
Writing system.direction: left-to-right
Writing system.region: Sumer
Writing system.fam1: Proto-cuneiform (Proto-writing)
Writing system.children: None; influenced the shape of Ugaritic and
Writing system.iso15924: Xsux
Writing system.sample: Xerxes_Cuneiform_Van.JPG
Writing system.caption: A trilingual cuneiform inscription of Xerxes I at Van Fortress in Turkey, an Achaemenid royal inscription written in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian forms of cuneiform

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Wikidata facts

Image: Cuneiform evolution from archaic script.jpg

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Commons category: Cuneiform
inception: 3000-00-00
end time: 0050-00-00
name: Cuneiform
Unicode range: U+12480-1254F
P8168: Against the Wall
P13411: February 15

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Article

29 sections

Contents

History
Sumerian pictographs (c. 3300 BC)<span class="anchor" id="Pictograms"></span>
Archaic cuneiform (c. 2900 BC)
Cuneiforms and hieroglyphs
Early Dynastic cuneiform (c. 2500 BC)
Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform<span class="anchor" id="Summero-Akkadian cuneiform"></span>
Elamite cuneiform
Hittite cuneiform
Hurrian and Urartian cuneiform
Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian cuneiform
Derived scripts
Old Persian cuneiform (5th century BC)
Ugaritic
Archaeology
Decipherment
Transliteration
Sign inventories
Syllabary
Numerals
Usage
Modern usage
Unicode
Corpus
List of major cuneiform tablet discoveries
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links

Over the course of its history, cuneiform was adapted to write a number of languages in addition to Sumerian. Akkadian texts are attested from the 24th century BC onward and make up the bulk of the cuneiform record. Akkadian cuneiform was itself adapted to write the Hittite language in the early 2nd millennium BC. The other languages with significant cuneiform corpora are Eblaite, Elamite, Hurrian, Luwian, and Urartian. The Old Persian and Ugaritic alphabets feature cuneiform-style signs; however, they are unrelated to the cuneiform logo-syllabary proper. The latest known cuneiform tablet, an astronomical almanac from Uruk, dates to AD 79/80.