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Add BCE temporal tags to all documents; add temporal-dating steering doc

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daniel
2026-02-22 23:38:12 +00:00
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writing-systems/cuneiform.md
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# Cuneiform
## Overview
Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system, developed in Sumer ~3400 BCE. Written by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay tablets, it was used for over 3,000 years across multiple languages and civilizations.
Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system, developed in Sumer ~3400 BCE. Written by pressing a reed stylus into wet clay tablets, it was used for over 3,000 years across multiple languages and civilizations. @t[~3400 BCE]
## Key Facts
- Origin: Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, ~3400 BCE
- Origin: Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, ~3400 BCE @t[~3400 BCE]
- Medium: Clay tablets impressed with a wedge-shaped reed stylus
- Name: From Latin *cuneus* ("wedge")
- Languages written: Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Elamite, Urartian, Old Persian
- Deciphered by: Henry Rawlinson, Edward Hincks, and others (~1840s–1850s) via the Behistun Inscription [^1]
## Development
- Began as pictographic/logographic system for accounting (~3400 BCE)
- Evolved into syllabic writing by ~2600 BCE
- Began as pictographic/logographic system for accounting (~3400 BCE) @t[~3400 BCE]
- Evolved into syllabic writing by ~2600 BCE @t[~2600 BCE]
- ~600–1,000 signs in use at various periods
- Last known cuneiform tablet: 75 CE (astronomical text from Babylon) [^2]