A writing system of wedge-shaped strokes that emerged in Mesopotamia late in the 4th millennium BC. Pressed into clay tablets with a reed stylus, it was used to record several civilizations and languages for over three thousand years.
Ancient Assyrian merchant letters were sealed in clay envelopes that had to be broken to be read. In 2026, scientists used a portable CT scanner to read 4,000-year-old letters inside their sealed cuneiform envelopes for the first time, without breaking them.