Language & Words
Cuneiform Quiz
Wedge-shaped writing of Mesopotamia — the world's oldest known script
Wedge-shaped writing of Mesopotamia — the world's oldest known script
Only about 10% of the 500,000+ known cuneiform tablets have ever been translated. Pressed into clay with reed styluses by Sumerian scribes more than 5,000 years ago, cuneiform is the earliest known system of writing — a script used for over 3,000 years to record everything from king lists to beer recipes. This quiz takes you from the temples of Uruk to the cliffs of Behistun, the libraries of Nineveh, and the modern museums where these ancient tablets are still being decoded.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
You'll encounter the Sumerians and Akkadians, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Code of Hammurabi, the Library of Ashurbanipal, the Behistun Inscription, the decipherers Grotefend and Rawlinson, the Cyrus Cylinder, and the everyday life captured on tablets — from school exercises and beer recipes to royal letters and astronomical observations.
Cuneiform was invented by the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia around 3400-3200 BC, evolving from earlier accounting tokens and pictographic signs into a wedge-shaped script pressed into clay tablets with a reed stylus.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest known epic poem, originally Sumerian (c. 2100 BC) and later compiled in a Standard Akkadian version (c. 1200 BC) attributed to Sîn-lēqi-unninni. It includes a famous flood narrative pre-dating the biblical account of Noah.
Cuneiform was first cracked by Georg Friedrich Grotefend in 1802 and definitively deciphered by Henry Rawlinson, who copied the trilingual Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. The inscription's parallel Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian texts served as the cuneiform 'Rosetta Stone.'
Last updated: April 2026