Cuneiform Writing System Developed

Around 3200 BC, the Sumerians developed cuneiform, the world's earliest known writing system, in the city of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Initially used for economic record-keeping, these pictographs were impressed into clay tablets using reed styluses, creating the distinctive wedge-shaped marks. Over time, this system evolved from simple pictographic representation to a complex script that could express abstract concepts and phonetic values, enabling the creation of literature and detailed records that would document Mesopotamian civilization for over 3,000 years.