Timeline Sketches

Roman Alphabet Timeline

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Cuneiform: Brief History

Cuneiform

c. 31st century B.C.E. to 1st century C.E.

• Cuneiform comes from the Latin word cuneus meaning "wedge"
• Script form - "wedge-shaped"
• It began as a series of pictographs and was later developed into logograms.
• These logograms continued to develop to include phonetic elements (29th century B.C.E.).
• Sharp and round-shaped styluses were replaced by wedge-shaped ones-hence its description of wedge-styled impressions.
• It was used to record laws and codes on clay tablets and then fired in kilns for permanence. Examples we still see today are Hammarabi's Code and the Semitic speaking nation of Mari. Syria.
• Cuneiform became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and numbers until it was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
• Originally adapted for writing of the Akkadain, Elamite, Ablaite, Hittite, Luwain, Hattic, Hurrian, & Urartian languages.

(Information obtained from crystallinks.com and Wikipedia)