CUNEIFORM Clay Tablet, Mesopotamia 2 Millennium BC. Size 43 mm. long.

CUNEIFORM Clay Tablet, Mesopotamia 2 Millennium BC. Size 43 mm. long.

Descriptions of the type :

Condition : Some damage, signs of glue.

Not for export !

      Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from about 3000 BC. It is named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions which form its signs. Cuneiform was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia. Cuneiform is one of 2 earliest writing systems (the second is Hieroglyphs). 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 second 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 dates to 75 AD. The script fell totally out of use soon after and was forgotten until its rediscovery and decipherment in the 19th century.