The Invention of Cuneiform Writing

Cuneiform writing emerged in Sumer toward the end of the fourth millennium BCE, in the context of the city of Uruk, as a response to the need to record economic transactions, inventories of goods, and tribute. The earliest tablets, made of damp clay with a reed stylus, used pictographic signs representing concrete objects; over time, these signs became stylized into wedge-shaped strokes (hence the name "cuneiform," from the Latin cuneus, meaning wedge) and evolved into a mixed logographic and syllabic system.