Sumer: Cuneiform script

Writing was invented in southern Mesopotamia, in the ancient kingdom of Sumer, sometime before 3,000 BCE. Cuneiform, the type of writing seen in column 6 of this slide, was a development from earlier 'logographic' writing, in which signs stood for words (e.g., the sign for fish is a drawing of a fish, which was called 'kha' in the Sumerian language). Later cuneiform symbols (those in columns 5 and 6) were both logographic and syllabic - that is, they could be used to mean the thing that they represent or the sound of that word. So, for instance, the cuneiform symbol for 'fish' could mean either 'fish' or be combined with the 'la' sign to form the word 'kha.la,' which means 'share' or 'part.'