cuneiform

A clay tablet with cuneiform script in Old Babylonian dating from around 1780 BC, which was found at Tell Leylan, Syria. The laws that constituted the Code of Hammurabi were inscribed in Old Babylonian. Cuneiform script was first used nearly two thousand years earlier than this example, although the language in which it was used was Sumerian.

Ancient writing system formed of combinations of wedge-shaped strokes, usually impressed on clay. It was probably invented by the Sumerians, and was in use in Mesopotamia as early as the middle of the 4th millennium BC.

It was adopted and modified by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Elamites, Hittites, Persians, and many other peoples with different languages. In the 5th century BC it fell into disuse, but sporadically reappeared in later centuries. The decipherment of cuneiform scripts was pioneered by the German George Grotefend 1802 and the British orientalist Henry Rawlinson 1846.