cuneiform (ky
nē`ĭfôrm) [Lat.,=wedge-shaped], system of writing writing, the visible recording of language peculiar to the human species. Writing enables the transmission of ideas over vast distances of time and space and is a prerequisite of complex civilization.
..... Click the link for more information. developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley, probably by the Sumerians. The characters consist of arrangements of wedgelike strokes generally impressed with a stylus on wet clay tablets, which were then dried or baked. The history of the script is strikingly parallel to that of the Egyptian hieroglyphic hieroglyphic (hī'rəglĭf`ĭk, hī'ərə–) [Gr.,=priestly carving], type of writing used in ancient Egypt .
..... Click the link for more information. (see also alphabet alphabet [Gr. alpha-beta, like Eng. ABC], system of writing , theoretically having a one-for-one relation between character (or letter) and phoneme (see phonetics ). Few alphabets have achieved the ideal exactness.
..... Click the link for more information. and inscription inscription, writing on durable material. The art is called epigraphy. Modern inscriptions are made for permanent, monumental record, as on gravestones, cornerstones, and building fronts; they are often decorative and imitative of ancient (usually Roman) methods.
..... Click the link for more information. ). The normal Babylonian and Assyrian writing used a large number (300–600) of arbitrary cuneiform symbols for words and syllables; some had been originally pictographic. There was an alphabetic system, too, making it possible to spell a word out, but because of the adaptation from Sumerian, a different language, there were many ambiguities. A single symbol could be used to represent a concept, an object, a simple sound or syllable, or to indicate the category of words requiring additional definition. Cuneiform writing was used outside Mesopotamia also, notably in Elam Elam (ē`ləm), ancient country of Asia, N of the Persian Gulf and E of the Tigris, now in W Iran.
..... Click the link for more information. and by the Hittites (see Anatolian languages Anatolian languages (ăn'ətō`lēən)
..... Click the link for more information. ). There are many undeciphered cuneiform inscriptions, apparently representing several different languages. Cuneiform writing declined in use after the Persian conquest of Babylonia (539 B.C.), and after a brief renaissance (3d–1st cent. B.C.) ceased to be used in Mesopotamia. A very late use of cuneiform writing was that of the Persians, who established a syllabary for Old Persian. This is the writing of the Achaemenids (mid-6th cent. B.C.–4th cent. B.C.), whose greatest monument is that of Darius I at Behistun. Key discoveries of cuneiform inscriptions have been made at Nineveh, Lagash, Uruk, Tell el Amarna, Susa, and Boğazköy. Two great names in the interpretation of cuneiforms are those of Sir Henry C. Rawlinson Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke, 1810–95, English Orientalist and administrator; brother of George Rawlinson. In the course of his service with the Persian army and as consul at Baghdad, Rawlinson became interested in deciphering the cuneiform of the Behistun
..... Click the link for more information. and G. F. Grotefend Grotefend, Georg Friedrich (gā`ôrkh frē`drĭkh grō`təfĕnt)
..... Click the link for more information. .
cuneiform
nē`ĭfôrm) [Lat.,=wedge-shaped], system of writing writing, the visible recording of language peculiar to the human species. Writing enables the transmission of ideas over vast distances of time and space and is a prerequisite of complex civilization...... Click the link for more information. developed before the last centuries of the 4th millennium B.C. in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley, probably by the Sumerians. The characters consist of arrangements of wedgelike strokes generally impressed with a stylus on wet clay tablets, which were then dried or baked. The history of the script is strikingly parallel to that of the Egyptian hieroglyphic hieroglyphic (hī'rəglĭf`ĭk, hī'ərə–) [Gr.,=priestly carving], type of writing used in ancient Egypt .
..... Click the link for more information. (see also alphabet alphabet [Gr. alpha-beta, like Eng. ABC], system of writing , theoretically having a one-for-one relation between character (or letter) and phoneme (see phonetics ). Few alphabets have achieved the ideal exactness.
..... Click the link for more information. and inscription inscription, writing on durable material. The art is called epigraphy. Modern inscriptions are made for permanent, monumental record, as on gravestones, cornerstones, and building fronts; they are often decorative and imitative of ancient (usually Roman) methods.
..... Click the link for more information. ). The normal Babylonian and Assyrian writing used a large number (300–600) of arbitrary cuneiform symbols for words and syllables; some had been originally pictographic. There was an alphabetic system, too, making it possible to spell a word out, but because of the adaptation from Sumerian, a different language, there were many ambiguities. A single symbol could be used to represent a concept, an object, a simple sound or syllable, or to indicate the category of words requiring additional definition. Cuneiform writing was used outside Mesopotamia also, notably in Elam Elam (ē`ləm), ancient country of Asia, N of the Persian Gulf and E of the Tigris, now in W Iran.
..... Click the link for more information. and by the Hittites (see Anatolian languages Anatolian languages (ăn'ətō`lēən)
..... Click the link for more information. ). There are many undeciphered cuneiform inscriptions, apparently representing several different languages. Cuneiform writing declined in use after the Persian conquest of Babylonia (539 B.C.), and after a brief renaissance (3d–1st cent. B.C.) ceased to be used in Mesopotamia. A very late use of cuneiform writing was that of the Persians, who established a syllabary for Old Persian. This is the writing of the Achaemenids (mid-6th cent. B.C.–4th cent. B.C.), whose greatest monument is that of Darius I at Behistun. Key discoveries of cuneiform inscriptions have been made at Nineveh, Lagash, Uruk, Tell el Amarna, Susa, and Boğazköy. Two great names in the interpretation of cuneiforms are those of Sir Henry C. Rawlinson Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke, 1810–95, English Orientalist and administrator; brother of George Rawlinson. In the course of his service with the Persian army and as consul at Baghdad, Rawlinson became interested in deciphering the cuneiform of the Behistun
..... Click the link for more information. and G. F. Grotefend Grotefend, Georg Friedrich (gā`ôrkh frē`drĭkh grō`təfĕnt)
..... Click the link for more information. .
Bibliography
See E. Chiera, They Wrote on Clay (1956); J. D. Prince, Assyrian Primer (1909, repr. 1966); A. Gaur, A History of Writing (1984).
cuneiform
1. of, relating to, or denoting the wedge-shaped characters employed in the writing of several ancient languages of Mesopotamia and Persia, esp Sumerian, Babylonian, etc.
2. of or relating to a tablet in which this script is employed
3. any one of the three tarsal bones
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