Assyrian cuneiform

Assyrian cuneiform is an ancient writing system used by the Assyrian civilization, which thrived in Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq. It involves characters made by pressing a stylus into soft clay to create wedge-shaped marks. This script evolved from earlier Sumerian cuneiform and was used for administrative, legal, and literary texts. Assyrian cuneiform can represent sounds (syllabic) and ideas (logographic), enabling a complex expression of language. Scholars decipher it by studying artifacts and inscriptions, revealing insights into Assyrian culture, history, and governance. Its use peaked around the 1st millennium BCE before being replaced by alphabetic systems.