Cuneiform is one of the earliest forms of writing in human history. It gets its name (“wedge-shaped”) from the wedge-shaped impressions with which its characters are made. Scribes typically wrote by pressing a reed stylus into clay tablets. Cuneiform was used to write many languages in the ancient Near East, including Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, and Hurrian.

The earliest cuneiform tablets we have are based in an economic context: the clay tablets recorded transfers of quantities of raw or processed goods, such as barley for food and beer, for example. Soon all sorts of other types of text began to be written: legal texts, treaties, myths, religious songs, letters and even recipes. Clay tablets survive very well, even without being fired. Hundreds of thousands of documents are preserved in museum collections today. Through them we can learn about the culture, beliefs, economy and history of ancient Near Eastern civilisations from around 3200 BC up until the first century AD.

Film original en Français: Écriture cunéiforme, écrire et compter
Film in Deutsch untertitelt: In Keilschrift schreiben und zählen
Película con subtítulos en Español: La escritura cuneiforme: escribir y calcular
Türkçe altyazılı filmle: Çiviyazısı: yazı ve hesaplama