cuneiform: Quick Facts

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Photos

Sumerian cuneiform tablet

Stone tablet with rows of Hieroglyphic Luwian script carved in relief, showing intricate symbols and characters, from Turkey.

Persian cuneiform from the Xerxes inscription at Persepolis

Sumerian cuneiform inscription from the temple dedicated to Enlil at Nippur, Iraq

The number 258,458 expressed in the sexagesimal (base 60) system of the Babylonians and in cuneiform.

Examples illustrating the evolution of cuneiform writing.

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Topics

Old Akkadian cuneiform Old Assyrian cuneiform Neo-Assyrian cuneiform Akkadian writing Old Babylonian cuneiform cuneiform numeral Ugaritic alphabet Sumerian writing writing system hieroglyphic writing cryptology punctuation shorthand Braille Phonetic transcription Linear A and Linear B The World’s 5 Most Commonly Used Writing Systems ogham writing Quoc-ngu

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Anatolian languages: Languages using cuneiform writing and hieroglyphs

Key People

Rawlinson, detail of an engraving by Samuel Cousins after a painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips, 1850

Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson

British army officer and Orientalist

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André Parrot

French archaeologist

Grotefend, detail of a lithograph by C. Kiesel, c. 1830, after a portrait by J.F. Winkelmann

Georg Friedrich Grotefend

German scholar

Hrozný

Bedřich Hrozný

Czech archaeologist and linguist

Books. Lord Alfred Tennyson. Lord Byron. Poetry. Reading. Literacy. Library. Antique. A stack of four antique leather bound books.

Ancient Libraries and Archives Quiz