Knowra Cuneiform Cuneiform Cuneiform is a family of ancient writing systems whose signs were impressed into clay with a cut reed stylus. It was used across the ancient Near East for languages including Sumerian and Akkadian.
Cuneiform sign : A conventional mark in a cuneiform script, representing a word, syllable, sound, or grammatical function. Individual signs combined to record different languages and kinds of information.
Uruk period : A late fourth-millennium BCE period in southern Mesopotamia marked by the rise of cities and administrative institutions. The earliest known cuneiform tablets come from Uruk-period contexts.
Mesopotamian mathematics : The mathematical practices of ancient Mesopotamian societies, recorded on cuneiform tablets. Mathematical tablets used cuneiform notation for calculations, tables, and problems.
Mesopotamian scribe : A trained writer in ancient Mesopotamia who produced and interpreted cuneiform texts. Scribes learned sign forms and conventions through years of tablet-based training.
Akkadian Empire : An ancient Mesopotamian empire founded by Sargon of Akkad in the twenty-fourth century BCE. Imperial administration helped extend cuneiform use across a wider region.
Stylus : A pointed or cut tool used to write, draw, or mark a surface. Scribes pressed a cut reed stylus into wet clay to make cuneiform wedges.
Proto-cuneiform : An early Mesopotamian system of accounting signs, used before cuneiform fully represented spoken language. It documents the transition from recording goods to writing language.
Code of Hammurabi : A Babylonian law collection inscribed on a stone stele under King Hammurabi in the eighteenth century BCE. Its cuneiform inscription exemplifies writing used to present royal law.
Enheduanna : A Sumerian poet and high priestess of the moon god Nanna, associated with the city of Ur. Works attributed to her show cuneiform used for named literary authorship.
Hittite Empire : A Bronze Age state centered in Anatolia, whose official records included cuneiform tablets. Hittite scribes adopted cuneiform and used it to write Hittite.
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