cuneiform

Everyday

1. Cuneiform is one of the oldest kinds of writing in the world, made of small wedge-shaped marks pressed into wet clay with a reed, first used in ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq) over 5,000 years ago. tree →
2. (adjective) Cuneiform describes something shaped like a wedge, or written in this script. tree →

In the lessons

In history lessons it comes with the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians and the first cities. It tells the reader about how writing began: for counting grain, animals and taxes, then for laws, letters and stories like the Epic of Gilgamesh. Clay tablets with cuneiform are kept in museums such as the British Museum.

Examples

• The Sumerians wrote in cuneiform on clay tablets. tree →
• Cuneiform marks look like tiny triangles and lines. tree →
• Scribes pressed a reed into wet clay to write cuneiform. tree →
• Some cuneiform tablets are lists of sheep and barley. tree →
• We tried writing our names in cuneiform with lollipop sticks and clay. tree →
• The British Museum has thousands of cuneiform tablets. tree →
• Experts can now read cuneiform. tree →

Note

Uncountable: «written in cuneiform». Pronounced «KYOO-nee-i-form» (UK also «kyoo-NAY-i-form»). From Latin «cuneus», a wedge. It is a writing system, not a language: it was used for several languages, such as Sumerian and Akkadian. Not to be confused with Egyptian hieroglyphs, which are pictures.

In Jewish tradition

Interpretation: Some writers in the corpus ask whether the Hebrew letters came from cuneiform, Egyptian or Hittite writing. Tradition itself holds that the letters were given by God and used to create the world. In the primary lessons: In history lessons it comes with the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians and the first cities. It tells the reader about how writing began: for counting grain, animals and taxes, then for laws, letters and stories like the Epic of Gilgamesh. Clay tablets with cuneiform are kept in museums such as the British Museum.

Examples

• Similarly, all cuneiform characters originated from two symbols Y < those for one and ten. (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) tree →
• Did it spring from the Egyptian liioro- fflyphics, or from the cuneiform systems of the Assyrians, or from the hieroglyphics of the Hittites, or from the Syllabary (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) tree →

Note

Uncountable: «written in cuneiform». Pronounced «KYOO-nee-i-form» (UK also «kyoo-NAY-i-form»). From Latin «cuneus», a wedge. It is a writing system, not a language: it was used for several languages, such as Sumerian and Akkadian. Not to be confused with Egyptian hieroglyphs, which are pictures.