Writing in Mesopotamia

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Cuneiform meaning “wedged shapes”, is the Sumerian writing system. Cuneiform was used to record and communicate different types of information, they recorded daily events, trade, astronomy and literature. Before cuneiform, the writings on these tablets were simple pictures, or pictograms, which represent an object or an idea. But because clay is a difficult material to draw lines and curves on, the pictures eventually became fairly standardized linear drawings that made recording for the Mesopotamians a lot simpler. They came to have wedged shaped appearance because they were pressed into soft clay tablets with the slanted edge of a stylus.

CuneiformMesopotamian stylus

The Ending Of CuneiformThis trend increased as the script was modified and distributed to even more places around Mesopotamia. When the Hittites and Old Persians got hold of it, the script was being used for Indo-European languages as well. Finally, someone in Ugarit got fed up with the whole thing, so he/she decided to invent an "alphabet" of sorts ,with one symbol per sound. (This revolution in writing wasn't discovered in Sumerian times.)

Ugarit

http://www.mrdowling.com/603-writing.html

http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/home_set.html

http://mesopotamia.lib.uchicago.edu/mesopotamialife/article.php?theme=Invention%20of%20Writing

http://history-world.org/cuneiform_writing.htm

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Sumerian/Grammar/Lesson_Nine_-_Cuneiform

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