Many of the early script languages did not use any letters, but used small pictures instead. Around 3500 B.C., the Sumerians in Mesopotamia invented the cuneiform script: Notches were made in wet clay tablets with a wooden handle. The clay tablets then dried and became hard. Initially, there were about 1500 picture – like symbols, from which 800 simplified symbols developed gradually. Many of these small notches put together resulted in a word – just like a picture puzzle of today or the script of the Chinese.
