Cuneiform is one of the earliest known writing systems, developed by the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia, with an early centre in the city of Uruk. It began as pictographic signs pressed into wet clay tablets to record goods such as grain and livestock, and over time the signs became abstract wedge-shaped marks made with a cut reed stylus. The system was adapted to write many languages, including Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite and Hittite, and was used for around three thousand years for administration, law, literature and science. Scholars deciphered it in the nineteenth century, helped by the trilingual Behistun Inscription of the Persian king Darius I.
Before and after
- from 31st century BCE to 14th century BCEConstruction of Stonehenge
- from 31st century BCE to 20th century BCECorded Ware culture
- c. 3,000s BCEThe Austronesian expansion begins from Taiwan
- c. 3,000s BCEYamnaya herders spread across Europe and Asia
- c. 3,000 BCECuneiform
- from c. 3,000 BCE to 1,800 BCEIndus Valley Civilization
- from c. 3,000 BCE to 2,240 BCEEbla
- from 30th century BCE to 18th century BCEMari
- from c. 2,890 BCE to 2,686 BCESecond Dynasty of Egypt
More in Art, literature & culture
- from c. 776 BCE to 500 CEAncient Olympic Games
- c. 520 BCECarving of the Behistun inscription
- c. 430s BCEHerodotus writes the Histories
- 2nd century BCEVenus de Milo
- c. 4 BCENativity of Jesus
- 325 CEFirst Council of Nicaea
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 30th century BCE.