Cuneiform was the ancient writing system used by the Sumerians.
The earliest known cuneiform texts were produced in southern Mesopotamia during the late 4th millennium BCE, especially for recording goods, labor, and administrative transactions. Writers pressed a cut reed stylus into wet clay, creating wedge-shaped marks; the name cuneiform comes from the Latin word for “wedge.”
Sumerian was the first language recorded in cuneiform, but later peoples, including Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, adapted the script for their own languages. Over time, its signs could represent words, syllables, or grammatical information.
Cuneiform was not a single alphabet. It was a flexible writing tradition whose sign values changed across languages and periods. The script remained in use for more than three thousand years before alphabetic systems and other writing practices replaced it in the ancient Near East.