Name of the script of Mesopotamia, consisting of wedge-shaped signs ('cuneus' in Latin means wedge). It was developed in the fourth millenium BC. Using a reed pen, several imprints per sign were made in damp clay. There are pictograms, logograms and a syllabic writing style. The script was used for Sumerian, Akkadian and various other languages of western Asia, and became the script used for diplomatic correspondence in the Near East. Thus the kings of Egypt also corresponded with other countries using cuneiform. In El-`Amarna, many clay tablets have been found containing letters from and to the Egyptian court, and in Boghazköy (Anatolia), for example, the cuneiform text of the treaty between Ramesses II and the Hittites was found.