Cuneiform — The Most Powerful Script Ever Devised

The unique glyphs that comprise the cuneiform writing style were developed in a fashion that was heavily influenced by the writing material. We established in Proto-Cuneiform :: The First Phase of Writing that the cuneiform script began as picture-symbols scratched into wet clay, which lasted through the Late Uruk Period (3350-3100) into the Jemdet Nasr period (3100-2900). This stage was called proto-cuneiform because the technique of true cuneiform had not yet been developed.

However, during the first few centuries of the 3rd millennium BCE, beginning in the Jemdet Nasr period but really taking place much more deeply after 2900 BCE in the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer, we began to see a number of important changes taking place within the cuneiform script. These changes were a shift in the orientation of the symbols, a shift in the direction of writing, a simplification of the symbols themselves, a reduction in the number of symbols, a change in the writing method itself (how the reed stylus was used) and lastly, but most importantly, a shift towards the script becoming phonetic.

All of these changes resulted in the script becoming powerful, and in its spread throughout the Near East, and perhaps even further in concept at least. I believe a case can even be made that it reached China and inspired their writing system by 1400 BCE. After all, 1600 years (from 300 BCE) is a long time with a species as vigorous, adventurous, and surprising as humans. That aside, the substantial development that took place during this period all lead to cuneiform being able to precisely record the possibilities of spoken language, resulting in the first historical documents, the first writing of ancient myths and legends, and even original composition, all of which began by about 2400 BCE.

Invention of the Cuneiform Technique

As previously stated, one of the main changes that took place was the development of a new technique of using the reed stylus. Their writing utensil remained the same: a cut-reed stylus (abundant in Sumer along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). After choosing their reed, they would have first cut it horizontally down to size. Then they would have used one of a few possible techniques of cutting the reed to get a few different stylus shapes, which became their writing end/edge.

The Cuneiform Stylus, depicting various methods for cutting the reed to create reed styli with a few possible shapes. Image credit: J. Marzahn and A. Bramanti. Public Domain.

They had been using such reed styli for a few centuries already. Though after 2900 they began to use it in a new way: instead of using the sharp-edged triangle to scratch the glyphs in clay, they instead pressed an edge of the triangle in and out of the clay, leaving a crisp cuneus impression (Latin for “wedge”) because each impression was roughly triangular.

They composed their glyphs of a number of these impressions. You can see and feel fairly close to how they would have felt and poised themselves by writing sentences in English, but creating each letter as a series of dots. Give it a try. The scribe would have sat with their clay tablet in their laps, while probably sitting on their shins, and held the reed stylus at an angle to the clay (their orientation changing depending on the type of markings they needed for glyphs they were trying to create, which in and of themselves were numerous) pressing the tip into the clay, re-orientating the stylus each time building each glyph one impression at a time, gradually moving across the tablet.

They would tilt the reed stylus more impressing more of the cylindrical body of th reed, like the imprint of a small mug. Or they would impress the end of the stylus, giving a deep circle symbol. These symbols, the stylus itself, and the clay itself as a medium all influenced and gradually changed the writing system. Eventually they even engraved their cuneiform on metal or stone. All these they combined into a distinct writing system, preserving the content and substance of a language that was actually lost to humanity, even in our remembrance of the people who spoke, for more than 2000 years.

Evolution of Cuneiform

By 2400 BCE the script had shifted completely from the proto-cuneiform scratches in clay, to true cuneiform “wedge-shaped” impressions. Over this period from about 3000 to 2400 a number of important changes took place, all of which I believe we can attribute to an increase in efficiency and effectiveness of the script. Which I think it is safe to assume emerged as popular and desired changes realized by the scribes over thousands of hours and dozens of generations of scribes learning and practicing their art. The characters themselves changing too, as generations upon generations of scribes found new, easier, or better ways to create their symbols.

Simplification & Reorientation of Cuneiform

At first when proto-cuneiform writing developed they amassed a large number of symbols quite rapidly. Some estimates are as high as 1500 different signs, while the more conventional (and common) estimate I have come across seems to be that they created over 900 different glyphs.

In the first proto-cuneiform phase of the invention of cuneiform, new signs were gradually created generally comprised of several simpler and more basic signs, which were in their own right and meaning relevant concepts to the compound ideas that they were building (ideally). Interestingly, this is how Chinese characters were also developed, and you can in many cases see the intention of the ancient creators of these scripts. For example the character for relax is composed of parts meaning “roof” and “woman”, presumably because women relax under their roofs for the day while men are at work. (Forgive any unavoidable sexism, this is ancient Chinese thought.) Likewise, the character for “noisy” was three of the character meaning “woman”, because three woman together were noisy. In the cuneiform Sumerian script the word “mouth” was represented as an etched human head with the mouth area hatched. Or water and head signs were combined for the verb “to drink”.

Furthermore, during the Ur III/Jemdet Nasr period (3100-2900) they had also devised compressed versions of some of the larger and longer signs which enabled them to make a glyph smaller, say if they only had so much space left on a line, yet was too much to leave blank. During that same period they had also made the symbols more complex from their proto-cuneiform roots.

However, after 2900 BCE during the Early Dynastic Period of Sumerian history, the cuneiform glyphs underwent a transition towards greater simplicity. From pictographic simplicity in the Late Uruk Period, to more complex abstract symbols, and then back towards simplicity as these abstract symbols were refined yet again.

I believe that we can conclude with some confidence that one of the reasons for this was sheer efficiency. After spending so much time learning and practicing their scribal art, these ancient scholars would have inevitably reached a point where they realized that some of the glyphs simply took too long to create. Finding that if they changed a glyph from being composed of say 20 individual cuneus impressions to only 12, they still retained the meaning of the original, and didn’t drastically change it in its appearance, but cut the time to form it almost in half.

Another similar development in the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer is that they reduced the number of symbols, from an estimated 900 to a slightly more reasonable 600 (and eventually further down to 400) which would have made the script easier to learn. Further contributing somewhat to the flexibility of the script which would eventually result in it becoming phonetic, because they learned to do more with less.

Another change they made in the first centuries of the 3rd millennium which is far more inexplicable is that the Sumerians changed the direction that they both wrote and read the tablets. At first in the proto-cuneiform phase they divided the tablets into large boxes and put their symbols within the boxes which were to be read vertically. However, now they divided the tablets with horizontal lines which were read left-to-right, just like we read today, writing in the same direction also. They also rotated the symbols 90° counter-clockwise, so that they glyphs now appeared to be lying on their side.

These changes to the writing system were introduced in all of the powerful southern cities, including Shuruppak, Ur, Uruk, Abu Salabikh, even as far as Mari and Ebla to the far northwest, in what is now modern Syria’s territory. As in every other aspect of Near Eastern culture (during these early periods at least) we see a  true shared culture. The signs they used, and they way they formed them, were almost identical. Even the lexical texts found include most of the same words, in the same order, regardless of where we find them. Though there are variations, of course, they are more similar than they are different, which tells us very importantly, forcefully, and profoundly, that whatever the difference in race or language, these people were one people. One shared culture.

Development of the Cuneiform Determinative

As writing became more complicated, scribes invented special symbolic markers which indicated the category that a group of symbols spelling out a word belonged to, called a determinative. The determinative was placed before the symbols that spelled out the word so as to note the reader of the species of the word that follows. A cuneiform determinative would indicate whether the subsequent word was the name of a god/dess, star or constellation, foreign country, a certain ethnic group, a type of tree (or something made of wood), a city,, the name of a person, or a profession, a house or temple, or a river.

For example, the determinative which denoted that the following word was the name of a foreign country was 𒆳 pronounced KUR. 𒆳 in its earlier proto-cuneiform pictographic origin was drawn as a picture of three mountains, which the Sumerians felt symbolized “foreign country” because their land in the fertile crescent was river plains enclosed largely by mountains – as well as desert and sea, to be fair – so to them foreign countries were mostly to be found in or through the mountains (which is interesting in and of itself because this glyph alone tells us that in the earliest of times the Sumerians were well aware not just of foreign countries and people, but how to reach them, meaning that some individuals at least had made such journeys).

The determinative for god/goddess was the symbol for star 𒀭 and read DINGUR, which preceded every name of a deity; when referring to the name of a person they preceded the name with the glyph 𒇽 which was pronounced LÚ, which could also be used before professions; the symbol 𒂍 which was pronounced “É” was used before for buildings and temples, such as for Inanna’s temple in Uruk called the Eanna, which in Sumerian was written as 𒂍𒀭𒈾, which if we were to read the symbols by their meaning we have “house-heaven-lady” or phonetically as E-AN-NA which makes sense because Inanna was known as the “Queen of Heaven” so we can translate this perhaps as the “House of the Queen of Heaven”. Another determinative is 𒀯 pronounced MUL if the Sumerian scribes were about to use glyphs to phonetically spell out the name a specific constellation.

Each of these symbols (and there are many more) preceded the symbols which (in later times especially) phonetically spelled out the name of what they were trying to write. I think you’ll be able to see that their main function was clarity, because when the logograms of the Sumerian language were used phonetically, this meant that each symbol could be intended as a word in and of itself, or it could be used purely for the sound of the word in the spelling out of a specific name which in general would have nothing to do with the individual symbols. To avoid misreading and subsequent confusion, the determinative was developed.

These determinatives were conceived of early on in the development of the cuneiform script, probably beginning around 3000 and continuing into the end of the Uruk III/Jemdet Nasr period. This is similar in usage to the cartouche of ancient Egypt, which is the oval that surrounds certain names. However, it doesn’t just surround any person’s name, only the Pharaoh’s name. Therefore any name written within a cartouche (which is essentially a a sideways oval that looks somewhat like a bullet, which is what the French word cartouche actually means) we know that the name is that of the king. This is how determinatives were also used, however, the cartouche is perhaps a poor example to those educated in ancient Egypt because the Egyptians had their own set of determinatives, found instead at the end of words.

Different scribes specialized in different types of documents. Some would specialize in bureaucratic documents, maybe dealing with goods, crops, sales, and trade transactions. Other scribes may have preferred to focus on religious texts, copying, recopying, and transcribing histories, myths, and legends relating to their gods, heroes and kings. Still others would have focused on dedicatory inscriptions, funerary inscriptions, law codes, or public missives from a king recording events such as reminding the populace not to masturbate in public places. (This is actually an example from Ancient Egypt, though forgive me, because it is hilarious in that it must have happened often enough for them to specifically remind people not to do it.) Still others would have perhaps specialized in legal cases, for there was a surprisingly high developed legal code (with more gender equality than we saw for almost 3000 years afterwards in much of the world, women being allowed to own property, and were entitled to a portion of wealth and possessions in the case of a divorce, depending on the circumstances of the divorce that is.)

Each type of document would have their own set of determinatives, as well as their own symbols and special features. This being due to the specific language in each type of documents, much like we see in the various specialized fields in the world today. Thus the Sumerians would have eventually developed certain symbols for vocabulary that was only relevant in a certain form of documents, and specific determinatives, as previously stated. From bureaucratic, to legal, to missives and inscriptions, each possessed their own set of symbols, words, and determinatives which only an advanced scholar would have complete control of all within a single discipline. Though the highest class of scholar-scribe would have mastered them all.

Cuneiform Becomes Phonetic :: Mimicking Language

This table was published by E. A. Wallis Budge (Ernest Alfred) and L. W. King (Leonard Wooley) in 1922. Shows the transition from Proto-Cuneiform writing in Cuneiform script proper, as well as the simplification of the signs. Public Domain.

During the first proto-cuneiform phase of cuneiform the written language did not conform to spoken language. However, as the script gradually developed and began to be written left-to-right on horizontal lines, the word order gradually conformed to the grammar of the spoken Sumerian tongue.

Over the centuries from 3200 to after 2600 the cuneiform glyphs were put more and more to a phonetic usage. The Sumerians began to employ what it known as the rebus principle, which is when a sign represents a sound. Like our modern alphabet, each symbol doesn’t mean anything aside from a specific sound that we can make with our mouths. In practice this meant that the words the symbols originally bound to were used for their sound as opposed to meaning. For example, the symbol for earth 𒆠 which was pronounced KI/GI in Sumerian was used literally for the sound “KI” as opposed to the meaning “earth”; the word reed was pronounced ŠE so its symbol 𒊺 therefore came to represent the sound ŠE. In this same fashion the Sumerians thus collected some 250 signs that were used for the sound of their words as opposed to the meaning of them, and since the Sumerian language was largely monosyllabic, this meant that many glyphs could be assigned a single syllable.

This was probably the most important revolution in the history of writing, specifically in the development of cuneiform, because it made it more flexible and versatile. It allowed the Sumerian scribes to transcribe any sounds they heard – even nonsense or slang – which eventually made it possible to record any language. We could even write modern English to some degree if we wanted. Since some of the glyphs represented sounds themselves, while others represented nouns and verbs, the culture that desired to appropriate cuneiform script could take the symbols with inherent meaning (tree, cow, mountain, man, arm…) and just attach their own languages synonyms to the symbol, then fill in the gaps (such as in the case of personal names, place names, or obscure words) by using the phonetic script.

As the script increased the frequency with which it was used phonetically (symbols representing sounds instead of nouns) this meant that a number of signs began to have more than one meaning. 𒆠 the symbol for “earth” was pronounced KI which meant literally “earth”, though KI was also a word for grain, where, to build, or to make. So in a text it could mean any one of those, or it could also be used phonetically just for the sound KI. The cuneiform glyph for “grain” 𒊺 was pronounced ŠE had a variety of meanings such as grain, but could also mean to heat, to pacify, cold water, to rain, excrement, or as a unit of measure (the barleycorn, which was 1.67 cm, about the width of a finger).

The word “reed” was pronounced GI and its symbol was 𒄀. Though there were a number of other words that were pronounced GI so 𒄀 could also mean to surround, injury, young man, or to return. The symbol for water 𒀀 was pronounced A and as a monosyllabic word in and of itself could mean anything from water, canal, tears, father, or offspring, depending on the context. Or it could be used phonetically say in the transcription of someones name simply as the sound A, or as part of a compound word also for its sound.

It was chiefly context that told the reader how to interpret the word. It was reasons such as this that the determinative was developed. Imagine you came across a group of symbols 𒀀𒊺𒄀𒆠. The scribe could agonize over this because they know all the various words the glyphs could be referring to. They could look at those symbols and think of a number of interpretations (based on the various words that share the symbol and pronunciation covered above) such as: “water-to rain-reed-to build” or “offspring-to pacify-young man-to make” as if they were riddles. The scribe would have no way of telling which was the true reading and interpretation of the sentence.

However, with one single determinative 𒇽 (LU) placed in front of the phrase which means “man” and tells us that the subsequent characters are describing a person, we know that the glyphs 𒇽𒀀𒊺𒄀𒆠 are actually writing the name of a person which is read A-SE-GI-KI, so a person named Ashegiki. (Though this name is completely made up, literally just random characters so I doubt that is an example of an actual name.)

Transcription of Names In Cuneiform

Even though cuneiform had a phonetic function to a selection of its characters within the script, it was never used completely phonetically. Even though it possessed the ability to do so. Much like modern Japanese, while the phonetic kana alphabet can capture the entirety of the language they still use the characters they borrowed from China (kanji) because it does actually add clarity, specifically in the discernment between words that are pronounced the same because in the written language they will possess different characters.

However right from the beginning of the cuneiform script’s development we already see a tendency towards the language’s phonetic use. It was invented for administrative purposes, the recording of business and trade transactions, distribution and organization of goods. So part of what they had to do was record the names of the merchant or customer in business transactions, as well as the name of the scribe or official who oversaw the process and who authorized the document.

This posed quite a challenge for these early scholars for, after all, what symbol could you realistically create that somehow means Gilgamesh, Aanepada, Shulgi, Meskalamdug, Enmebaragesi, Mesanepada, or Naram-Sin? Or the female names of Queen Puabi, Enheduanna (the daughter of Sargon and the first poet and author in the history of the world), Ashusikildigir, or Enanatuma? Therefore it seems that this problem was probably a strong factor that pushed the Sumerians towards a phonetic script (or at least a set of symbols that were used phonetically).

Indeed there are a few instances of the language being used between 3200 – 3000 BCE for this reason, probably because of the difficulty that names presented in writing. We also have other words and signs that indicate a tendency towards phonetic use, such as the Sumerian word for mother (AMA) whose symbol was a star within a box-shaped design. Since the star is read AN this could be an example of a symbol created with a phonetic use in mind as 𒀭 (AN) may have been intended to suggest the pronunciation of the entire sign. [15] Interestingly, AMA is also the Korean word for mother, and their language is agglutinative too. (Though not with the “aa” sound, rather the “uh” sound.)

Another class of names, which are different than personal names, are the names of deities. It seems that the names of gods and goddesses literally mean the characters that form them. Such as Ereshkigal [𒀭𒊩𒆠𒃲] which translates as “lady-earth-great” and is pronounced Eresh-ki-gal, who was the ancient form of the Greek goddess Persephone, goddess of death and the underworld. Or Ninhursag [𒀭𒊩𒌆𒉺𒂅] whose name meant lady (𒊩𒌆) mountain (𒉺𒂅), whom we can call “Lady of the Mountain”, the great mother and consort of Enki. Or  Enki [𒀭𒂗𒆠] himself, whose name meant “lord” [𒂗] “earth” [𒆠], literally “en-ki”.

These names strike me as different, because they almost don’t seem like names at all, but titles in and of themselves. The “name” Enki literally means “Lord of Earth” in Sumerian, likewise Ereshkigal literally means “Lady of the Great Earth” or perhaps “Great Lady of the Earth”. Every time the Sumerian’s uttered those words they were repeating titles more than anything, rather than true names, such as personal names. Thus from the beginning the names of deities never required a phonetic script, which is interesting.

A Closeup of a Cuneiform Inscription commissioned by Xrexes on a cliff face in Van Castle (Van Kalesi), Van, Turkey. Credit: Alex Jones CC-SA-2.0.

These phonetic signs allowed writing to break from accounting. With the phonetic function of Sumerian cuneiform that was common after 2600, the language suddenly became far more flexible and powerful in that it could now mimic pretty much any sound that could be spoken. The first type of writing that broke from the accounting tradition were dedicatory inscriptions on stone seals, metal vessels, or small figurines which could be dedicated at a temple to a deity, or could be buried with a deceased individual bearing their name for all eternity.

In the Royal Cemetery of Ur (c.2700-2400) we find a number of non-administrative inscriptions, one to a (king if memory serves) from whose inscription we know his name: “Meskalamdug.” As well as another to “Queen Puabi” who was buried extravagantly with 68 of her female attendants who appear to have gone willingly to the afterlife with her in what is known as the Great Death Pit. Puabi was not only Queen, but a powerful noblewoman of immense importance.

Other funerary inscriptions advanced even further the uses of writing where in some cases the name was followed by a patronymic (fathers name, where a matronymic would be the mothers name) as well as the name of the temple or god to whom the statue was dedicated. We also know that the Sumerians called the afterlife “the land of no return” from these inscriptions. Other of the earliest syllabic texts other than royal inscriptions, dealt with topics concerning religion and magic, as did a great many of the Egyptian texts. Though we are still a few centuries from true mythology, legends, prose, hymns, and poetry. (The poetess Enheduanna was writing the first original compositions of all time, to our knowledge, c.2300 BCE.)

From Cuneiform to the Alphabet

Almost directly as an outgrowth of cuneiform, the alphabet was invented by 1500 BCE. This is literally the alphabet – the only alphabet ever invented – which was shaped and molded by the successive cultures who used it certainly, yet fundamentally changed little in concept through its history. The first alphabet is called Proto-Sinaitic / Proto-Canaanite script which emerged in the northern half of the Levantine coast in the region of Lebanon. This was the first script which was based purely on sounds that the human mouth can make, which are relatively few, out of which the entirety of human language emerges.

The Proto-Canaanite script contained only 22 letters. It reduced the 400 or so cuneiform signs (not to mention the tens of thousands of Chinese characters, or the 46 basic (71 including diacritics) syllable phonetic script of Japan) to a mere 22 sounds. However, to those of you who are familiar with the later Hebrew script, which is the direct descendant of the Proto-Canaanite script, the letters only covered the consonants. Thus the script is consonantal, omitting all of the vowels (a, e, i, o, and u). Though the script is incomplete because of this, and is a pain both for recording and for learning.

Indeed, this problem is exhibited perfectly in our uncertainty of reading nothing less than the Name of God, the Tetragrammaton of ancient Biblical texts. In Hebrew it is written as יהוה which in English is commonly written as YHWH. Though this can be read either as YaHWeH or YeHoWHa – thus Yahweh and Jehovah. (Though the “j” is incorrect because that sound didn’t exist in ancient Hebrew, thus there was never a Jew named Jesus, or a Judah, or a Joseph. These are all romanizations of the individuals real names. Though the “v” is accurate because the “w” sound changed to a soft “v” in that context, so Yehovah.)

The alphabet was invented only once. It was the masterful seafarers themselves, the Phoenicians (who lived in the land that is now Syria and Lebanon) who spread the alphabet throughout the Mediterranean. They brought it to the Greeks who updated it and completed it maybe around 800 BCE, adding 6 new letters for the vowels pushing it to near-perfection in recording spoken language, and bringing the total to 27 letters.

From the Greeks in their wanderings (probably) the alphabet reached the mysterious Etruscans on the Italian peninsula, who modified it only slightly. Then when the Roman’s took over the peninsula – and the rest of the world – they adopted the alphabet for themselves and used it for their language: Latin, from whence it reaches us all modern English speakers, and speakers of any language that uses the Latin alphabet (Spanish, French, German, etc).

All versions of the alphabet are ultimately derivative of the Proto-Sinaitic, including Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and Brahmani. [15] Even our word “alphabet” itself is proof of this origin. The Proto-Sinaitic alphabet was developed using the concept that they took the (originally cuneiform) symbol for a number of words, and used the first letter of each of those words to build the phonetic alphabet. So the first sound of the word alapa (which means “ox head”) is “a”, so the symbol for alapa then essentially became the symbol for “a”. Likewise the word betu meant “house”, so the symbol for betu became “b”. They chose 22 words with 22 distinct sounds to create the Proto-Canaanite alphabet.

However, the Hebrew version of the same alphabet, the first two letters are pronounced aleph and bet. Together we have alephbet. Close, but we are not yet there yet. For the final piece we must visit the Greeks, whose first two letters of their “alphabet” are… alpha and beta, so together this essentially becomes the alphabet. The link in the chain that connects us of today directly to our Sumerian predecessors. Even the way we right: in horizontal lines, left to right, and top to bottom, can be traced right back to them.

Echoing Influence of Sumerian Cuneiform

Why was the Sumerian language the first ever to be recorded in symbol? We don’t actually know with absolutely certainty if it was the Sumerian tongue first written, but we are fairly sure. The region has been multilingual from the earliest times that we know of, since often when scribes signed their tablets their names were semitic. Some of the first royal inscriptions were in Sumerian, but commissioned by semitic kings.

The Sumerians appear to have arrived in the region somewhat suddenly, though they could have been native. Some believe they arrived from the mountains, which is where they got the ziggurat idea from, suggesting a relation between Sumerian and the also agglutinative Ural-Altaic tongue of the mountains far to the north. To be direct, these are questions we just don’t have the answers to, yet.

The only thing we know for certain is that whoever these Sumerians were, they created what is probably the most powerful and influential script ever. Their language and their script was the language of prestige, the language of religion, even the language of the gods in a sense. Not because the Sumerians attributed the invention of writing to the goddess Nisaba, but because religion was as important, as absolute, in Mesopotamia at that time as it was in any time or place in world history. At Sumerian written in cuneiform was the way that all religious texts were written. Even millennia after the Sumerians themselves had passed into oblivion, knowledge of Sumerian was prestigious. Even in the 600’s BCE the great Assyrian kings still dictated each of their pronouncements to two scribes: one maintaining ancestral tradition writing Akkadian in cuneiform on clay, while the other used the modern means of writing Aramaic with the alphabet on papyrus.

We saw how cuneiform changed from 3000 to 2600 BCE, becoming cuneiform proper, undergoing processes of simplification and refinement, turning on its side, and eventually becoming phonetic. The creation of phonetic cuneiform glyphs resulted in the extension of its usage, and almost ensured the survival and proliferation of this script.

Its spread from Sumer to neighboring regions, including Egypt. The first Egyptian inscriptions date to the late 4th millennium, which is right around the time that the phonetic use of cuneiform was realized, so there are many scholars who believe that concept of writing made its way into Egypt from Sumer and was not independently developed, which is the reason why the Egyptian language was instantly phonetic. Though the Egyptians appear to have made up all of their own signs.

The phonetic nature of cuneiform may have made its way into the Indus Valley c.2500 BC where a form of writing appears on seals. Though it was abandoned, and remains undeciphered. Though we know it to have been used by probably all major Near Eastern people for thousands of years, of many different linguistic groups. It was used by the Sumerians for their unique tongue. As well as the Babylonians, Kassites, Elamites, and Assyrians, by the semitic Akkadians and Eblaites, the Caucasian Hurrians, and the Indo-European Mitanni, Persians, and Hittites.

We saw how cuneiform developed from bullae, into proto-cuneiform, and ultimately into our modern alphabet over 10,000 years. Cuneiform reached us not only in the symbols of our alphabet, but in the way that we write, in the way that we line our paper, and also in the history that we have access to because of the millennia of documentation done by studious, dedicated scribes. Thus for these reasons cuneiform is the most powerful and enduring script ever invented, which had repercussion and an influence on the development of culture and society that these ancient scholars, packing mud and clay on the riverbanks in the summer heat of ancient Sumer, could have never imagined in their most outrageous fantasies.