When was the last known cuneiform tablet written?

Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system that remained in active use from the early Bronze Age until the 1st century BC, with the final known Akkadian cuneiform document dating from the 1st century AD. Over its long history, the script was adapted to write multiple languages across the ancient Near East, eventually becoming confined to scholars and priests working in temples before disappearing entirely. Today, an estimated half a million tablets are held in museum collections around the world.

What we know

• The cuneiform script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the 1st century BC. [2]
• The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD. [4]
• By the Hellenistic period, the Akkadian language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. [4]
• An estimated half a million cuneiform tablets are held in museums across the world. [2]

Where to go next

• how we knowHow was cuneiform rediscovered and deciphered?
• the bigger pictureWhat languages were written in cuneiform?
• whenHow did proto-cuneiform evolve into cuneiform?
• whereWhat role did the city of Uruk play in early writing?
• what caused itHow did the Akkadian language replace Sumerian?
• an unexpected connectionHow did an ancient Mesopotamian writing system record early Indo-European words?Old Assyrian Kültepe texts written in cuneiform contain Hittite loanwords and names, forming the oldest record of any Indo-European language.

Sources

• [1]cuneiform (Wikidata Q401) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Cuneiform · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Proto-cuneiform · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Akkadian language · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Uruk · CC BY-SA 4.0

Your path

1. How did the history of banking evolve from ancient to modern times?
2. /What was Abraham Gottlob Werner's theory on the Earth's origin?
3. /When was the last known cuneiform tablet written?