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AROriginating in what is now Iraq before 3200 BC, cuneiform script is, as far as we know, the oldest form of writing in the world. The recording of a spoken language, emerged from earlier recording systems at the end of the 4th Millennium BC. The first written language in Mesopotamia is called Sumerian. Most of early tablets come from the site of Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia, and it may have been here that this form of writing was invented.
Cuneiform is one of the oldest forms of writing known. It means "wedge-shaped," because people wrote it using a reed stylus cut to make a wedge-shaped mark on a clay tablet. Letters enclosed in clay envelopes, as well as works of literature, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh have been found. Historical accounts have also come to light, as have huge libraries such as that belonging to Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal. Cuneiform writing was used to record a variety of information such as temple activities, business and trade. Cuneiform was also used to write stories, myths, and personal letters. The latest known example of cuneiform is an astronomical text from 75 CE. During its 3000-year history, cuneiform was used to write around 15 different languages including Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Elamite, Hittite, Urartian, and Old Persian.
First developed by scribes as a book-keeping tool to keep track of bread and beer rations in ancient cities like Uruk (in south east of modern-day Iraq), system soon spread across Middle East and was used continuously for more than 3000 years, up until 1st Century AD. Cuneiform is not a language but a proper way of writing distinct from the alphabet. It doesn't have 'letters' – instead it uses between 600-1000 characters impressed on clay to spell words by dividing them up into syllables, like 'ca-at' for cat, or 'mu-zi-um' for museum. Other signs stood for whole words, like our '£' standing for pound sterling.
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