David Longstreth

I've always loved cuneiform; I've always loved the way it looks. I love that it's the world's oldest script. And the creative potential of bad translation or misunderstanding or something has always been at the core of the idea of 'Dirty Projectors.' So the cuneiform is pretty playful - basically, just a joke.

American Musician

Edan Lepucki

I love how easy it is to run my business, Writing Workshops Los Angeles, with the help of email and my website. I love that I don't have to use cuneiform, a quill, or a typewriter to write my novels - I love to write on my laptop!

American Novelist

Margaret Atwood

Some of our earliest writing, in cuneiform, was about who owes what.

Canadian Novelist

Cuneiform refers specifically to the earliest known writing system developed over 5,000 years ago.

Ancient Origins

Cuneiform was commonly inscribed on clay tablets which were then baked to preserve the writing.

Clay Tablets

Understanding cuneiform is essential for studying ancient Mesopotamian cultures like the Sumerians and Babylonians.

Middle Eastern History

In anatomy, cuneiform refers to bones in the feet and hands that are wedge-like in shape.

Wedge-Shaped Bones

This usage of cuneiform is more common in medical or anatomical studies, not general conversation.

Medical Term

Identify the context to decide whether 'cuneiform' relates to writing or anatomy.

Understanding Context

 with its symmetrical markings on the left, possible stylized representations of hands in the middle, and what looks a bit like a bracket on the right. The oldest systems of graphic communication in the world -- Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, the earliest Chinese script,

Why are these 32 symbols...

 What began as simple pictures scrawled onto wet clay to keep track of goods and wealth developed into a sophisticated writing system by the year 3,200 BC. This writing system would come to be called cuneiform

Ancient Mesopotamia 101...

 Waves of nomadic tribes poured into the region from the north and east. Some newcomers looked up to the Sumerians, adopting their way of life and using the cuneiform script to express their own languages.