GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Detailed explanation-1: -Cuneiform is one of the oldest forms of writing known. It means “wedge-shaped, ‘’ because people wrote it using a reed stylus cut to make a wedge-shaped mark on a clay tablet. Letters enclosed in clay envelopes, as well as works of literature, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh have been found.

Detailed explanation-2: -Cuneiform is not a language but a proper way of writing distinct from the alphabet. It doesn’t have ‘letters’ – instead it uses between 600 and 1, 000 characters impressed on clay to spell words by dividing them up into syllables, like ‘ca-at’ for cat, or ‘mu-zi-um’ for museum.

Detailed explanation-3: -The origins of cuneiform may be traced back approximately to the end of the 4th millennium bce. At that time the Sumerians, a people of unknown ethnic and linguistic affinities, inhabited southern Mesopotamia and the region west of the mouth of the Euphrates known as Chaldea.

Detailed explanation-4: -Full writing-systems appear to have been invented independently at least four times in human history: first in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) where cuneiform was used between 3400 and 3300 BC, and shortly afterwards in Egypt at around 3200 BC.