Cuneiform script is one of the most ancient writings. It was invented by the Sumerians. This writing system was in use for more than three millennia from the 34th century BC down to the second century CE. Before, pictographs were drawn on clay tables in vertical columns with a sharpened reed stylus.
Between half a million and two million cuneiform tablets have been found up to date, of which only around 30,000-100,000 have been read and published. The British museum holds the most cuneiform tablets in the world.
The cuneiform script underwent considerable changes over a period more than two thousand years. Let’s take for example: the sign of the head. It was a pictograph clearly describing a head. Over a few centuries, the head’s shape became more and more abstract: it was just a few lines.
Certain signs that indicate names of gods, kinds, cities, birds, etc. are known as determinatives. The earliest Sumerian King whose name appeared on cuneiform tablets is Enmebaragesi of Kish.
From about 2900 BC, many of the pictographs lose their original function, and a given sign could have various meanings.
The number of pictograms dropped from 1500 signs to 600 signs.
They typical signs usually have in the range of about five to ten wedges (stokes), while the complex ones can go up to twenty or more wedges. The longest consists of 31 strokes.
The place with the largest number of cuneiform tablets is in Persepolis Iran. That probably means that a lot of Sumerians lived there.
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