When was cuneiform writing first developed in Mesopotamia?
Quick Answer
Cuneiform first emerged in southern Mesopotamia around 3400–3200 BCE. It began as a system of pictographs used for record-keeping and later became wedge-shaped writing.
The Full Story
Cuneiform developed in southern Mesopotamia, especially in the city of Uruk, around 3400–3200 BCE. The earliest signs were pictorial and were used mainly for accounting, administration, and tracking goods such as grain and livestock. Over time, scribes simplified the signs into the wedge-shaped marks made with a reed stylus that gave cuneiform its name. It became one of the world’s longest-used writing systems, surviving in various forms for more than 3,000 years. By the third millennium BCE, it had spread beyond Sumerian to languages such as Akkadian.
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