History glossary
Cuneiform
an early writing system made by pressing wedge-shaped marks into clay.
- Category
- Writing system
- Region
- Mesopotamia
- Date range
- from c. 3200 BCE
What it means
Cuneiform began in Mesopotamia as a way to record goods, labor, taxes, and temple business. Over time it was used for laws, stories, letters, royal inscriptions, and scholarship across several languages.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Indus Valley
From farming villages to great planned cities, the Indus Valley civilisation rose across South Asia and left an enduring legacy despite its many mysteries.
Mesopotamia
Ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was one of the birthplaces of urban civilisation. In this Tigris and Euphrates civilization, communities built some of the first cities, developed cuneiform writing, organised law codes, and created early empires. From Sumer and Akkad to Babylon and Assyria, this history of Mesopotamia shows how farming, irrigation, temples, kingship, trade, and record-keeping helped create the structures of complex society. It also works as a Mesopotamia timeline and Mesopotamia civilization overview, with clear Mesopotamia facts tracing how Mesopotamian civilization grew from villages into states and empires.
