Texts · 4 · David

How cuneiform worked

Mesopotamian scribes pressed tiny wedges into clay with a stylus. The signs evolved from pictures into hundreds of symbols for words and syllables.

The name comes from Latin cuneus, 'wedge.'

Dig deeper

Both cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs used silent 'determinatives' to tell readers what kind of word was meant.

Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 67

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