Cuneiform writing in Sumer (MyArtsLab)

What will be an ideal response?

From this "Closer Look" segment one can see this form of writing is a straight-line script made with a triangle-tipped stylus cut from reeds. The images have a wedge shape; the word cuneiform is from the Latin word cuneus, "wedge." This writing style is an advancement from earlier pictograms, shapes representing a thing or a concept. A later development was phonetic writing where signs began to represent not things but sounds. This approach liberated the sign from its picture.