Cuneiform writing

Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient people of Mesopotamia 3500-3000 BCE. It is thought of as the most significant among their many cultural contributions.

The name comes from the Latin word cuneus for 'wedge' owing to the wedge-shaped style of writing. In cuneiform, a stylus is pressed into soft clay to produce wedge-like impressions that represent word-signs (pictographs) and, later, phonograms or `word-concepts' (closer to a modern day understanding of a `word'). All of the great Mesopotamian civilizations used cuneiform (the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, Hatti, Hittites, Assyrians, Hurrians and others) until it was abandoned in favor of the alphabetic script after 100 BCE.