Mesopotamia (present-day southern Iraq) is the site of the world's earliest civilization and the place where cuneiform originated. The Sumerians, who thrived during the third century B.C., developed cuneiform, which began as a form of writing based on symbols. Cuneiform later became alphabetic in form, leading to ambiguities in interpretation.

In a case of the ancient world meeting the modern, a new presentation in the Global Gateway Web site offers digitized images of clay tablets, cones and brick fragments inscribed with cuneiform pictographs. The 38 objects are from the Library of Congress' collections. The Library acquired its collection of cuneiform materials in 1929 from Kirkor Minassian, an art dealer. These materials were part of his collection of Islamic bookbindings, manuscripts, textiles and ceramic and metal objects illustrating the history of the development of writing and book arts in the Middle East.

The Sumerians invented cuneiform, which involves the use of a wedge-shaped reed stylus to make impressions in clay. The clay (or brick) was then either baked in a kiln or dried by the sun. The word cuneiform is derived from Latin -- cuneus, for wedge and forma, meaning shape. These Sumerian writings can be seen in "Cuneiform Tablets: From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar III." The tablets are dated from the reign of Gudea of Lagash (2144-2124 B.C.) to Shalmanassar III (858-824 B.C.).

If you'd like to see examples of the world's only living pictographic system of writing, go to "Selections from the Naxi Manuscript Collection," which documents ceremonial writings of the Naxi people of China. This collection is also part of the Global Gateway Web site.