This writing system was in use for more than 30 centuries and was finally replaced by alphabetic writing during the Roman era. It was not until 1857 that the decipherment of cuneiform was completed.

Before the invention of alphabets, early writing systems—like hieroglyphs and cuneiform—used symbols ... which transformed some hieroglyphs into alphabetic letters, emerged in the Sinai ...

Deciphering some people's writing can be a major challenge—especially when that writing is cuneiform characters imprinted onto 3,000-year-old tablets. Now, Middle East scholars can use ...