Editing Cuneiform (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of writing}}
{{multiple image|perrow=3|total_width=450|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Accounting tokens
| image3=Pre-cuneiform tags, Sumer.jpg
| caption3=Pre-cuneiform tags, with drawing of goat or sheep and number (probably "10"), [[Al-Hasakah]], 3300–3100 BC, [[Uruk period|Uruk culture]]<ref name="auto2">{{cite web |title=Image gallery: tablet / cast |url=https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=232611001&objectId=327223&partId=1 |website=British Museum}}</ref><ref name=":12" />
| image1   = Accountancy clay envelope Louvre Sb1932.jpg
| caption1 = [[Bulla (seal)|Clay bulla]] and tokens, 4000–3100 BC, [[Susa]]
| image2   = Numerical tablet Khafaje OIM A21310.jpg
| caption2 = Numerical tablet, 3500–3350 BC (Uruk V phase), [[Khafajah]]
| footer=
}}
[[File:Cuneiform evolution from archaic script.jpg|thumb|290px|A table illustrating the progressive simplification of cuneiform signs from archaic (vertical) script to Assyrian]]
Writing began after pottery was invented, during the [[Neolithic]], when clay tokens were used to record specific amounts of livestock or commodities.<ref name="ANE25"/> In recent years a contrarian view has arisen on the tokens being the precursor of writing.<ref>[https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2979651/view] Bennison-Chapman, Lucy E. "Reconsidering 'Tokens': The Neolithic Origins of Accounting or Multifunctional, Utilitarian Tools?." Cambridge Archaeological Journal 29.2 (2019): 233–259.</ref> These tokens were initially impressed on the surface of round clay envelopes ([[Bulla (seal)|clay bullae]]) and then stored in them.<ref name="ANE25"/> The tokens were then progressively replaced by flat tablets, on which signs were recorded with a stylus. Writing is first recorded in [[Uruk]], at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and soon after in various parts of the [[Near East|Near-East]].<ref name="ANE25">"Beginning in the pottery-phase of the Neolithic, clay tokens are widely attested as a system of counting and identifying specific amounts of specified livestock or commodities. The tokens, enclosed in clay envelopes after being impressed on their rounded surface, were gradually replaced by impressions on flat or plano-convex tablets, and these in turn by more or less conventionalized pictures of the tokens incised on the clay with a reed stylus. The transition to writing was complete {{cite book|title=The Ancient Near East|author1=W. Hallo|author2=W. Simpson|publisher=New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich|year=1971|page=25}}</ref>

An ancient Mesopotamian poem gives the first known story of the [[invention of writing]]:

{{Blockquote|Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat [the message], the Lord of [[Uruk|Kulaba]] patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay.|Sumerian epic poem ''[[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]]''. {{Circa|1800 BC}}.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":12" />}}

The cuneiform writing system was in use for more than three millennia, through several stages of development, from the 31st century BC down to the second century AD.<ref>Adkins 2003, p. 47.</ref> The latest firmly dateable tablet, from Uruk, dates to 79/80&nbsp;AD.<ref name="Hunger2014" >Hunger, Hermann, and Teije de Jong, "Almanac W22340a from Uruk: The latest datable cuneiform tablet.", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 104.2, pp. 182–194, 2014</ref> Ultimately, it was completely replaced by [[alphabetic writing]], in the general sense, in the course of the [[Roman era]], and there are no cuneiform systems in current use. It had to be deciphered as a completely unknown writing system in 19th-century [[Assyriology]]. It was successfully deciphered by 1857.

{| <!-- work around layout issues. Table forces the image to appear in order, in particular before the next heading -->
|
The cuneiform script changed considerably over more than 2,000&nbsp;years. The image below shows the development of the sign SAĜ "head" (Borger nr. 184, U+12295 {{Cuneiform|[[:wiktionary:𒊕|𒊕]]}}).
[[File:SAG.svg|left|frameless|upright=1.8|Evolution of the cuneiform sign SAG "head", 3000–1000 BC]]
{{clear}}
Stages:
# shows the pictogram as it was drawn around 3000&nbsp;BC
# shows the rotated pictogram as written from {{circa|2800}}–2600&nbsp;BC
# shows the abstracted glyph in archaic monumental inscriptions, from {{circa|2600 BC}}
# is the sign as written in clay, contemporary with stage 3
# represents the late 3rd millennium BC
# represents Old Assyrian [[ductus (linguistics)|ductus]] of the early 2nd millennium BC, as adopted into Hittite
# is the simplified sign as written by Assyrian scribes in the early 1st millennium BC and until the script's extinction.
|}

===Sumerian pictographs (c. 3300 BC)<span class="anchor" id="Pictograms"></span>===
{{see also|Proto-cuneiform}}
[[File:P1150884 Louvre Uruk III tablette écriture précunéiforme AO19936 rwk.jpg|thumb|A tablet with proto-cuneiform pictographic characters, end of 4th millennium BC, [[Uruk period|Uruk III]]. This is thought to be a list of slaves' names, the hand in the upper left corner representing the owner.<ref name=":12" />]]
The cuneiform script was developed from [[Pictogram|pictographic]] [[proto-writing]] in the late 4th millennium BC, stemming from the near eastern token system used for accounting. The meaning and usage of these tokens is still a matter of debate.<ref>Overmann, Karenleigh A. ''The Material Origin of Numbers: Insights from the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East'', Piscataway, New Jersey, US: Gorgias Press, 2019</ref> These tokens were in use from the 9th millennium&nbsp;BC and remained in occasional use into the late 2nd millennium BC.<ref>Denise Schmandt-Besserat, "An Archaic Recording System and the Origin of Writing." Syro Mesopotamian Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–32, 1977</ref> Early tokens with pictographic shapes of animals, associated with numbers, were discovered in [[Tell Brak]], and date to the mid-4th millennium BC.<ref name="auto3">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |pages=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n15 7]-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref> It has been suggested that the token shapes were the original basis for some of the Sumerian pictographs.<ref>Denise Schmandt-Besserat, An Archaic Recording System in the Uruk-Jemdet Nasr Period, American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 19–48, (Jan. 1979)</ref>

Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans roughly the 35th to 32nd centuries BC. The first unequivocal written documents start with the Uruk IV period, from c. 3300&nbsp;BC, followed by tablets found in Uruk III, [[Jemdet Nasr]], Early Dynastic I [[Ur]] and [[Susa]] (in [[Proto-Elamite]]) dating to the period until c.&nbsp;2900&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |page=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n23 9] |url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref>

Originally, pictographs were either drawn on [[clay]] tablets in vertical columns with a sharpened [[Phragmites|reed]] [[stylus]] or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic wedge shape of the strokes.<ref name="auto3" /> Most [[Proto-Cuneiform]] records from this period were of an accounting nature.<ref>[https://cdli.ucla.edu/staff/englund/publications/englund2004a.pdf] Robert K. Englund, "Proto-Cuneiform Account-Books and Journals", in Michael
Hudson and Cornelia Wunsch,  eds.,  Creating Economic Order:  Record-keeping,
Standardization and the Development of Accounting in the Ancient Near East (CDL
Press: Bethesda, Maryland, USA) pp. 23–46, 2004</ref> The proto-cuneiform sign list has grown, as new texts are discovered, and shrunk, as variant signs are combined. The current sign list is 705 elements long with 42 being numeric and four considered pre-proto-Elamite.<ref>Green, M. and H. J. Nissen (1987). Zeichenliste der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk. ATU 2. Berlin</ref><ref>Englund, R. K. (1998). "Texts from the Late Uruk Period". In: Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit und Frühdy-
nastische Zeit (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/1). Ed. by P. Attinger and M. Wäfler. Fribourg, Switzerland / Göttingen, 15–217</ref><ref>[https://cdli.ucla.edu/file/publications/cdlb2021_006.pdf] Born, L., & Kelley, K. (2021). A Quantitative Analysis of Proto-Cuneiform Sign Use in Archaic Tribute. Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin, 006</ref>

Certain signs to indicate names of gods, countries, cities, vessels, birds, trees, etc., are known as [[determinative]]s and were the Sumerian signs of the terms in question, added as a guide for the reader. Proper names continued to be usually written in purely "logographic" fashion.
{{clear}}

===Archaic cuneiform (c. 2900 BC)===
{{Further|Liste der archaischen Keilschriftzeichen}}
[[File:Cuneiform pictographic signs (vertical).jpg|thumb|Early pictographic signs in archaic cuneiform, used vertically before {{cx|2300 BC}}.<ref name="auto4">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |page=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n28 14]|url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref>]]
The first inscribed tablets were purely pictographic, which makes it technically difficult to know in which language they were written. Different languages have been proposed, though usually Sumerian is assumed.<ref>Monaco, Salvatore F. "PROTO-CUNEIFORM AND SUMERIANS." Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, vol. 87, no. 1/4, 2014, pp. 277–282</ref> Later tablets dating after {{cx|2900 BC}} start to use syllabic elements, which clearly show a language structure typical of the [[agglutination|agglutinative]] [[Sumerian language]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |page=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n12 12] |url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref> The first tablets using syllabic elements date to the Early Dynastic I–II periods {{cx|2800 BC}}, and they are agreed to be clearly in Sumerian.<ref name="CW11">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |pages=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n11 11]-12 |url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref>

This is the time when some pictographic element started to be used for their phonetic value, permitting the recording of abstract ideas or personal names.<ref name="CW11"/> Many pictographs began to lose their original function, and a given sign could have various meanings depending on context. The sign inventory was reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs, and writing became increasingly [[phonological]]. Determinative signs were re-introduced to avoid ambiguity. Cuneiform writing proper thus arises from the more primitive system of pictographs at about that time, labeled the [[Early Bronze Age II]] epoch by historians.

The earliest known Sumerian king, whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets, is [[Enmebaragesi]] of Kish (fl.&nbsp;{{cx|2600 BC}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past Cuneiform |date=1987 |publisher=British Museum |page=[https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n13 13]|url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform |language=en}}</ref> Surviving records became less fragmentary for following reigns and by the arrival of Sargon, it had become standard practice for each major city-state to date documents by year-names, commemorating the exploits of its king.
{{clear}}
<gallery widths="200" heights="200" perrow="4">
File:Precuneiform tablet-AO 29561-IMG 9151-gradient.jpg|A proto-cuneiform tablet, end of the 4th millennium BC
File:Archaic cuneiform tablet E.A. Hoffman.jpg|A proto-cuneiform tablet, [[Jemdet Nasr period]], {{cx|3100–2900 BC}}
File:Cuneiform tablet- administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars MET DT847.jpg|A proto-cuneiform tablet, [[Jemdet Nasr period]], c.&nbsp;3100–2900&nbsp;BC. A dog on a leash is visible in the background of the lower panel.<ref>{{cite web|title=Proto-cuneiform tablet|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/329081|website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>
File:Blau Monument British Museum 86260.jpg|The [[Blau Monuments]] combine proto-cuneiform characters and illustrations, 3100–2700&nbsp;BC. British Museum. 
File:Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh.jpg|The newly discovered Tablet V of the [[Epic of Gilgamesh]]. It dates back to the old Babylonian period, 2003–1595&nbsp;BC, and is currently housed in the [[Sulaymaniyah Museum]], [[Kurdistan Region]], Iraq.
</gallery>

====Cuneiforms and hieroglyphs====
[[Geoffrey Sampson]] stated that [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] "came into existence a little after [[Sumerian script]], and, probably, [were] invented under the influence of the latter",<ref name=":12" /> and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia".<ref name=":12" /><ref>Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, et al., The Cambridge Ancient History (3rd ed. 1970) pp. 43–44.</ref> There are many instances of [[Egypt-Mesopotamia relations]] at the time of the invention of writing, and standard reconstructions of the [[development of writing]] generally place the development of the Sumerian [[proto-cuneiform]] script before the development of Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the suggestion the former influenced the latter.<ref name="The Times Atlas of World History">{{cite book |last1=Barraclough |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Stone |first2=Norman |title=The Times Atlas of World History |date=1989 |publisher=Hammond |isbn=978-0-7230-0304-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780723003045/page/53 53] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780723003045 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Given the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing, "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt".<ref name=":12" />

===Early Dynastic cuneiform (c. 2500 BC)===
{{Further|List of cuneiform signs|Sumerian language}}
[[File:Sumerian 26th c Adab.jpg|thumb|A Sumerian inscription in monumental archaic style, c.&nbsp;26th century&nbsp;BC]]
Early cuneiform inscriptions were made by using a pointed stylus, sometimes called "linear cuneiform".<ref name=":12" /> Many of the early dynastic inscriptions, particularly those made on stone, continued to use the linear style as late as c.&nbsp;2000&nbsp;BC.<ref name=":12" />

In the mid-3rd millennium BC, a new wedge-tipped stylus was introduced which was pushed into the clay, producing wedge-shaped cuneiform. This development made writing quicker and easier, especially when writing on soft clay. By adjusting the relative position of the stylus to the tablet, the writer could use a single tool to make a variety of impressions. For numbers, a round-tipped stylus was initially used, until the wedge-tipped stylus was generalized. The direction of writing was from top-to-bottom and right-to-left. Cuneiform clay tablets could be fired in [[kiln]]s to bake them hard, and so provide a permanent record, or they could be left moist and recycled if permanence was not needed. Most surviving cuneiform tablets were of the latter kind, accidentally preserved when fires destroyed the tablets' storage place and effectively baked them, unintentionally ensuring their longevity.<ref name=":12" />

{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=170|caption_align=center
| align    = left
| direction =vertical
| header=From linear to angular
| image1   = Calame-1.jpg
| caption1 = Wedge-tipped stylus for cuneiform writing on clay tablets
| image2   = Lugaldalu name archaic and early cuneiform.jpg
| caption2 = The regnal name "[[Lugal-dalu]]" in archaic linear script c.&nbsp;2500 BC, and the same name stylized with standard Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform ({{cuneiform|𒈗𒁕𒇻}})
}}
The script was widely used on commemorative [[stele|stelae]] and carved reliefs to record the achievements of the ruler in whose honor the monument had been erected. The spoken language included many [[homophone]]s and near-homophones, and in the beginning, similar-sounding words such as "life" [til] and "arrow" [ti] were written with the same symbol (𒋾). As a result, many signs gradually changed from being logograms to also functioning as [[syllabogram]]s, so that for example, the sign for the word "arrow" would become the sign for the sound "ti".<ref name="auto">{{cite book |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlp/cdlp0002_20160104.pdf |first=Daniel A. |last=Foxvog |title=Introduction to Sumerian grammar |page=12 |postscript=none |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103191548/http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlp/cdlp0002_20160104.pdf |archive-date=January 3, 2017 }}</ref>

Syllabograms were used in Sumerian writing especially to express grammatical elements, and their use was further developed and modified in the writing of the Akkadian language to express its sounds.<ref name="auto"/> Often, words that had a similar meaning but very different sounds were written with the same symbol. For instance the Sumerian words 'tooth' [zu], 'mouth' [ka] and 'voice' [gu] were all written with the original pictogram for mouth (𒅗).

[[File:Sales contract Shuruppak Louvre AO3766.jpg|thumb|A contract for the sale of a field and a house, in the wedge-shaped cuneiform adapted for clay tablets, [[Shuruppak]], c.&nbsp;2600&nbsp;BC]]
Words that sounded alike would have different signs; for instance, the syllable [ɡu] had fourteen different symbols.

The inventory of signs was expanded by the combination of existing signs into compound signs. They could either derive their meaning from a combination of the meanings of both original signs (e.g. 𒅗 ''ka'' 'mouth' and 𒀀 ''a'' 'water' were combined to form the sign for 𒅘 ''nag̃'' 'drink', formally KA×A; cf. [[Chinese character classification#Phono-semantic compounds|
Chinese compound ideographs]]), or one sign could suggest the meaning and the other the pronunciation (e.g. 𒅗 ''ka'' 'mouth' was combined with the sign 𒉣 ''nun'' 'prince' to express the word 𒅻 ''nundum'', meaning 'lip', formally KA×NUN; cf. [[Chinese character classification#Phono-semantic compounds|
Chinese phono-semantic compounds]]).<ref name="auto" />

Another way of expressing words that had no sign of their own was by so-called 'Diri compounds' – sign sequences that have, in combination, a reading different from the sum of the individual constituent signs (for example, the compound IGI.A (𒅆𒀀) – "eye" + "water" – has the reading ''imhur'', meaning "foam").<ref name="auto" />

Several symbols had too many meanings to permit clarity. Therefore, symbols were put together to indicate both the sound and the meaning of a symbol. For instance, the word 'raven' (UGA) had the same logogram (𒉀) as the word 'soap' (NAGA), the name of a city (EREŠ), and the patron goddess of [[Eresh (city)|Eresh]] (NISABA). To disambiguate and identify the word more precisely, two phonetic complements were added – Ú (𒌑) for the syllable [u] in front of the symbol and GA (𒂵) for the syllable [ga] behind. Finally, the symbol for 'bird', MUŠEN (𒄷) was added to ensure proper interpretation. As a result, the whole word could be spelt 𒌑𒉀𒂵𒄷, i.e. Ú.NAGA.GA<sup>mušen</sup> (among the many variant spellings that the word could have).

For unknown reasons, cuneiform pictographs, until then written vertically, were rotated 90° counterclockwise, in effect putting them on their side. This change first occurred slightly before the Akkadian period, at the time of the [[Uruk]] ruler [[Lugalzagesi]] (r. c. 2294–2270&nbsp;BC).<ref name="auto4" /><ref name=":12" /> The vertical style remained for monumental purposes on stone [[stela]]s until the middle of the 2nd millennium.<ref name=":12" />

Written Sumerian was used as a scribal language until the 1st century AD. The spoken language died out between c. 2100 and 1700&nbsp;BC.

{{anchor|Akkadian cuneiform}}

===Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform<span class="anchor" id="Summero-Akkadian cuneiform"></span>===
{{Further|Akkadian language}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary<br /><small>(c.&nbsp;2200 BC)</small>
| image1   = Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary.jpg
| image2   = Inscription of Naram-Sin.jpg
| footer=Left: Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary, used by early Akkadian rulers.<ref name=":12" /> Right: Seal of [[Naram-Sin of Akkad]] (reversed for readability), c. 2250 BC. The name of Naram-Sin ({{langx|akk|𒀭𒈾𒊏𒄠𒀭𒂗𒍪}}: ''<sup>[[dingir|D]]</sup>Na-ra-am <sup>[[dingir|D]]</sup>[[Sin (mythology)|Sîn]]'', ''Sîn'' being written 𒂗𒍪 EN.ZU), appears vertically in the right column.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mémoires |date=1900 |publisher=Mission archéologique en Iran |page=[https://archive.org/details/mmoires02franuoft/page/53 53] |url=https://archive.org/details/mmoires02franuoft}}</ref> British Museum. These are some of the more important signs: the [[:Wikibooks:Sumerian/List|complete Sumero-Akkadian list of characters]] actually numbers about 600, with many more "values", or pronunciation possibilities.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=C. |title=Reading The Past: Cuneiform |pages=16–17 |url=https://archive.org/details/Walker.C.ReadingThePastCuneiform/page/n15/mode/2up |language=en}}</ref>
}}
The archaic cuneiform script was adopted by the [[Akkadian Empire]] from the 23rd century BC ([[short chronology]]). The [[Akkadian language]] being [[East Semitic languages|East Semitic]], its structure was completely different from Sumerian.<ref name="auto3" /> The Akkadians found a practical solution in writing their language phonetically, using the corresponding Sumerian phonetic signs.<ref name="auto3" /> Still, many of the Sumerian characters were retained for their logographic value as well: for example the character for "sheep" was retained, but was now pronounced {{tlit|akk|immerum}}, rather than the Sumerian {{tlit|sux|udu}}.<ref name="auto3" /> Such retained individual signs or, sometimes, entire sign combinations with logographic value are known as [[Sumerogram]]s, a type of [[Heterogram (linguistics)|heterogram]].

The East Semitic languages employed equivalents for many signs that were distorted or abbreviated to represent new values because the syllabic nature of the script as refined by the Sumerians was not intuitive to Semitic speakers.<ref name="auto3" /> From the beginning of the [[Short chronology timeline#Middle Bronze Age|Middle Bronze Age]] (20th century BC), the script evolved to accommodate the various dialects of Akkadian: Old Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian.<ref name="auto3" /> At this stage, the former pictograms were reduced to a high level of abstraction, and were composed of only five basic wedge shapes: horizontal, vertical, two diagonals and the ''Winkelhaken'' impressed vertically by the tip of the stylus. The signs exemplary of these basic wedges are:

* AŠ (B001, U+12038) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒀸|𒀸]]}}</span>: horizontal;
* DIŠ (B748, U+12079) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒁹|𒁹]]}}</span>: vertical;
* GE<sub>23</sub>, DIŠ ''tenû'' (B575, U+12039) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒀹|𒀹]]}}</span>: downward diagonal;
* GE<sub>22</sub> (B647, U+1203A) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒀺|𒀺]]}}</span>: upward diagonal;
* U (B661, U+1230B) <span lang="akk">{{Cuneiform|[[:wikt:𒌋|𒌋]]}}</span>: the ''[[Winkelhaken]]''.

{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=2nd-millennium BC cuneiforms
| image1   = Votive monument to Hammurabi BM 22454 n01.jpg
| caption1 = The [[First Babylonian Dynasty|Babylonian]] king [[Hammurabi]] still used vertical cuneiform c.&nbsp;1750 BC.
| image2   = Babylonian tablet (time of Hammurabi, circa 1800 BCE).jpg
| caption2 = Babylonian tablets of the time of Hammurabi (c.&nbsp;1750 BC).
| footer= Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, either in inscriptions or on clay tablets, continued to be in use throughout the 2nd millennium BC.
| footer_align = center
}}
Except for the ''Winkelhaken'', which has no tail, the length of the wedges' tails could vary as required for sign composition.

Signs tilted by about 45 degrees are called ''tenû'' in Akkadian, thus DIŠ is a vertical wedge and DIŠ ''tenû'' a diagonal one. If a sign is modified with additional wedges, this is called ''gunû'' or "gunification"; if signs are cross-hatched with additional ''Winkelhaken'', they are called ''šešig''; if signs are modified by the removal of a wedge or wedges, they are called ''nutillu''.

"Typical" signs have about five to ten wedges, while complex [[Typographic ligature|ligatures]] can consist of twenty or more (although it is not always clear if a ligature should be considered a single sign or two collated, but distinct signs); the ligature KAxGUR<sub>7</sub> consists of 31 strokes.

Most later adaptations of Sumerian cuneiform preserved at least some aspects of the Sumerian script. Written Akkadian included phonetic symbols from the Sumerian [[syllabary]], together with logograms that were read as whole words. Many signs in the script were polyvalent, having both a syllabic and logographic meaning. The complexity of the system bears a resemblance to [[Old Japanese]], written in a Chinese-derived script, where some of these Sinograms were used as logograms and others as phonetic characters.

This "mixed" method of writing continued through the end of the [[Babylonia]]n and [[Assyria]]n empires, although there were periods when "purism" was in fashion and there was a more marked tendency to spell out the words laboriously, in preference to using signs with a phonetic complement.{{clarify|date=March 2024}}<!--Isn't the addition of a phonetic complement to the logogram ''more'' laborious?--> Yet even in those days, the Babylonian syllabary remained a mixture of logographic and phonemic writing.

===Elamite cuneiform===
{{main|Elamite cuneiform}}
[[Elamite cuneiform]] was a simplified form of the Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, used to write the [[Elamite language]] in the area that corresponds to modern Iran between the 3rd millennium and 4th century BC. Elamite cuneiform at times competed with other local scripts, [[Proto-Elamite]] and [[Linear Elamite]]. The earliest known Elamite cuneiform text is a treaty between Akkadians and the Elamites that dates back to 2200&nbsp;BC.<ref name="MK1">{{cite book |last1=Khačikjan |first1=Margaret |title=The Elamite language (1998) |page=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheElamiteLanguage1998/page/n9/mode/2up?q=naramsin}}</ref> Some believe it might have been in use since 2500&nbsp;BC.<ref name=daniels>Peter Daniels and William Bright (1996)</ref> The tablets are poorly preserved, so only limited parts can be read, but it is understood that the text is a treaty between the Akkad king [[Naram-Sin of Akkad|Nāramsîn]] and Elamite ruler [[Awan dynasty#Awan king list|Hita]], as indicated by frequent references like "Nāramsîn's friend is my friend, Nāramsîn's enemy is my enemy".<ref name="MK1"/>

The most famous Elamite scriptures and the ones that ultimately led to its decipherment are the ones found in the trilingual [[Behistun inscriptions]], commissioned by the [[Achaemenid]] kings.<ref name=reiner>Reiner, Erica (2005)</ref> The inscriptions, similar to that of the [[Rosetta Stone]]'s, were written in three different writing systems. The first was [[Old Persian]], which was deciphered in 1802 by [[Georg Friedrich Grotefend]]. The second, [[Babylonian language|Babylonian]] cuneiform, was deciphered shortly after the Old Persian text. Because Elamite is unlike its neighboring [[Semitic languages]], the script's decipherment was delayed until the 1840s.<ref name="MK1" />

Elamite cuneiform appears to have used far fewer signs than its Akkadian prototype and initially relied primarily on syllabograms, but logograms became more common in later texts. Many signs soon acquired highly distinctive local shape variants that are often difficult to recognise as related to their Akkadian prototypes.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Козлова |first1=Н. В. |last2=Касьян |first2=А. С. |last3=Коряков |first3=Ю. Б. |date=2010 |title=Клинопись |journal=Языки мира: Древние реликтовые языки Передней Азии |pages=197–222 |language=ru}}</ref>

===Hittite cuneiform===
[[Hittite cuneiform]] is an adaptation of Old Assyrian cuneiform to write the [[Hittite language]] that emerged c.&nbsp;1800&nbsp;BC and was used between the 17th–13th centuries BC. More or less the same system was used by the scribes of the [[Hittite Empire]] for two other [[Anatolian languages]], namely [[Luwian language|Luwian]] (alongside the native [[Anatolian hieroglyphs|Anatolian hieroglyphics]]) and [[Palaic language|Palaic]], as well as for the isolate [[Hattic language]]. When the cuneiform script was adapted to writing Hittite, a layer of Akkadian logographic spellings, also known as Akkadograms, was added to the script, in addition to the Sumerian logograms, or Sumerograms, which were already inherent in the Akkadian writing system and which Hittite also kept. Thus the pronunciations of many Hittite words which were conventionally written by logograms are now unknown.

=== Hurrian and Urartian cuneiform ===
The [[Hurrian language#Writing system|Hurrian language]] (attested 2300–1000&nbsp;BC) and [[Urartian language#Cuneiform|Urartian language]] (attested in the 9th–6th centuries BC) were also written in adapted versions of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform. Although the two languages are related, their writing systems seem to have been developed separately. For Hurrian, there were even different systems in different polities (in [[Mitanni]], in [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], in the Hittite Empire). The Hurrian orthographies were generally characterised by more extensive use of syllabograms and more limited use of logograms than Akkadian. Urartian, in comparison, retained a more significant role for logograms.<ref name=":2" />

===Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian cuneiform===
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Neo-Assyrian cuneiform syllabary<br /><small>(c.&nbsp;650 BC)</small>
| image1   = Akkadian syllabary.svg
| image2   = Mesopotamian palace paving slab REM.JPG
| footer= Left: Simplified cuneiform syllabary, in use during the [[Neo-Assyrian]] period.<ref name=":12" /> The "C" before and after vowels stands for "Consonant". Right: Mesopotamian palace paving slab, c. 600 BC
}}
In the [[Iron Age]] (c. 10th–6th centuries BC), Assyrian cuneiform was further simplified. The characters remained the same as those of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiforms, but the graphic design of each character relied more heavily on wedges and square angles, making them significantly more abstract:

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Assurbanipal King of Assyria (Sumero-Akkadian and Neo-Babylonian scripts).jpg|<div class="center">"[[Assurbanipal]] King of [[Assyria]]"<br />''Aššur-bani-habal šar mat Aššur <sup>KI</sup>''<br />Same characters, in the classical Sumero-Akkadian script of c.&nbsp;2000&nbsp;BC (top), and in the Neo-Assyrian script of the [[Rassam cylinder]], 643&nbsp;BC (bottom).<ref>For the original inscription: {{cite book |last1=Rawlinson |first1=H. C. |title=Cuneiform inscriptions of Western Asia |page=3, column 2, line 98 |url=http://www.etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/20376.pdf}} For the transliteration in Sumerian ''an-szar2-du3-a man kur_ an-szar2{ki}'': {{cite web |title=CDLI-Archival View |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P421807 |website=cdli.ucla.edu}} For the translation: {{cite book |last1=Luckenbill |first1=David |title=Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia Volume II |page=297 |url=https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/ancient_records_assyria2.pdf}} For the Assyrian pronunciation: {{cite journal |last1=Quentin |first1=A. |title=Inscription Inédite du Roi Assurbanipal: Copiée Au Musée Britannique le 24 Avril 1886 |journal=Revue Biblique (1892-1940) |date=1895 |volume=4 |issue=4 |page=554 |jstor=44100170 |issn=1240-3032}}</ref></div>
File:Rassam cylinder with translation of the First Assyrian Conquest of Egypt, 643 BCE.jpg|The [[Rassam cylinder]] with translation of a segment about the [[Assyrian conquest of Egypt]] by [[Ashurbanipal]] against "[[Black Pharaoh]]" [[Taharqa]], 643&nbsp;BC
</gallery>

Babylonian cuneiform was simplified along similar lines during that period, albeit to a lesser extent and in a slightly different way. From the 6th century, the [[Akkadian language]] was marginalized by [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]], written in the [[Aramaic alphabet]], but Akkadian cuneiform remained in use in the literary tradition well into the times of the [[Parthian Empire]] (250&nbsp;BC{{snd}}226&nbsp;AD).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Frye |first1=Richard N. |title=History of Mesopotamia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Mesopotamia-historical-region-Asia/Mesopotamia-from-c-320-bce-to-c-620-ce |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=December 11, 2020 |quote=The use of cuneiform in government documents ceased sometime during the Achaemenian period, but it continued in religious texts until the 1st century of the Common era.}}</ref> The last known cuneiform inscription, an astronomical text, was written in 75&nbsp;AD.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Marckham |last=Geller |s2cid=161968187 |title=The Last Wedge |journal=Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie |volume=87 |issue=1 |year=1997 |pages=43–95 |doi=10.1515/zava.1997.87.1.43 }}</ref> The ability to read cuneiform may have persisted until the third century AD.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":12" />

===Derived scripts===
====Old Persian cuneiform (5th century BC)====
{{main|Old Persian cuneiform}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=270|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Old Persian cuneiform syllabary<br /><small>(c.&nbsp;500 BC)</small>
| image1   = Old Persian cuneiform.jpg
| image2   = Tomb of Darius I DNa inscription part II.jpg
| footer=[[Old Persian cuneiform]] syllabary (left), and the [[DNa inscription]] (part II) of [[Darius the Great]] (c.&nbsp;490 BC), in the newly created Old Persian cuneiform.
}}
The complexity of cuneiforms prompted the development of a number of simplified versions of the script. [[Old Persian cuneiform]] was developed with an independent and unrelated set of simple cuneiform characters, by [[Darius the Great]] in the 5th century BC. Most scholars consider this writing system to be an independent invention because it has no obvious connections with other writing systems at the time, such as [[Elamite language|Elamite]], Akkadian, [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]], and [[Hittite language|Hittite]] cuneiforms.<ref>Windfuhr, G. L.: "Notes on the old Persian signs", page 1. Indo-Iranian Journal, 1970.</ref>

It formed a semi-alphabetic syllabary, using far fewer wedge strokes than Assyrian used, together with a handful of logograms for frequently occurring words like "god" ({{Script|Xpeo|𐏎}}), "king" ({{Script|Xpeo|𐏋}}) or "country" ({{Script|Xpeo|𐏌}}). This almost purely alphabetical form of the cuneiform script (36 phonetic characters and 8 logograms), was specially designed and used by the early Achaemenid rulers from the 6th century BC down to the 4th century BC.<ref name=schmitt>{{citation|last=Schmitt|first=R.|chapter=Old Persian|title=The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas|editor=Roger D. Woodard|edition=illustrated|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-521-68494-1|page=77}}</ref>

Because of its simplicity and logical structure, the Old Persian cuneiform script was the first to be deciphered by modern scholars, starting with the accomplishments of [[Georg Friedrich Grotefend]] in 1802. Various ancient bilingual or trilingual inscriptions then permitted to decipher the other, much more complicated and more ancient scripts, as far back as to the 3rd millennium Sumerian script.

====Ugaritic====
[[Ugaritic]] was written using the [[Ugaritic alphabet]], a standard Semitic style [[alphabet]] (an ''[[abjad]]'') written using the cuneiform method.