What was the first writing system known from ancient Mesopotamia?

Cuneiform was the first known writing system from ancient Mesopotamia.

It developed in the city of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia during the late fourth millennium BCE, probably around 3400–3200 BCE. Early signs were impressed into wet clay with a reed stylus and mainly recorded quantities of goods, workers, and administrative transactions. The marks became wedge-shaped, which gives cuneiform its name from the Latin word for “wedge.”

Cuneiform was not one language. Sumerian was among the earliest languages written with it, and later scribes adapted the system for Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and other languages. Over time, signs could represent words, syllables, or grammatical elements, making the script much more flexible than its earliest accounting forms.

Egyptian hieroglyphs emerged around the same broad period, but cuneiform is generally credited as the earliest known writing system. The script continued in scholarly use for more than three thousand years before disappearing in late antiquity.