CUNEIFORM WRITING
                            
 Cuneiform writing was a wedge-shaped writing developed in Sumeria(Near
 East). Etched into clay tablets it was developed from earlier pictographic
 writing similar in style to Egyptian hyroglyphics which were evolving
 prior and also parallel to the Sumerian writings.
 
 At this time although Egypt was the predominant power, there was much
 trade and contact between the cultures betwenn the rivers Tigris and
 the Euphrates (the "cradle of civilisation") and the joint kingdoms of
 Upper and Lower Egypt.