Cuneiform is the ancient writing system that used wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay.
The system developed in Mesopotamia, probably among the Sumerians, by the late fourth millennium BCE. A reed stylus was pressed into wet clay to create combinations of triangular or wedge-like impressions. The earliest tablets recorded administrative information such as rations, livestock, and labor.
Cuneiform was not one language or a single alphabet. It was a script adapted for several languages, including Sumerian and Akkadian, and later for languages such as Hittite. Egyptian hieroglyphics used pictorial signs in a different writing tradition. Cuneiform remained in use for more than 3,000 years before disappearing during late antiquity.