Cuneiform Quiz: Clay Tablets and Mesopotamian Writing

This cuneiform quiz presses a reed stylus into wet clay to explore writing from ancient Mesopotamia. Play 10 interactive questions on the Sumerians, Uruk, wedge-shaped signs, accounting roots, Akkadian, scribal schools, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Hammurabi's laws, the Behistun inscription and the last tablets.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Who
Which people first developed cuneiform?
When
About when did cuneiform begin?
Shape
What does cuneiform mean?
Tool
What did scribes write with?
Purpose
What were the earliest tablets mostly used for?
Languages
Which other language was written in cuneiform?
Epic
Which famous story was written on cuneiform tablets?
Laws
Whose law code was carved in cuneiform on a stone stele?
Decode
Which trilingual inscription helped scholars decipher cuneiform?
School
What were scribal schools called?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which people first developed cuneiform?
Answer: The Sumerians
They lived in southern Mesopotamia.
Q2: About when did cuneiform begin?
Answer: Around 3200 BCE
Early tablets come from Uruk.
Q3: What does cuneiform mean?
Answer: Wedge-shaped
From the Latin word cuneus.
Q4: What did scribes write with?
Answer: A reed stylus
They pressed it into clay.
Q5: What were the earliest tablets mostly used for?
Answer: Keeping accounts and records
Grain and livestock were counted.
Q6: Which other language was written in cuneiform?
Answer: Akkadian
Many languages borrowed it.
Q7: Which famous story was written on cuneiform tablets?
Answer: The Epic of Gilgamesh
It is one of the oldest stories.
Q8: Whose law code was carved in cuneiform on a stone stele?
Answer: Hammurabi's
It is in the Louvre.
Q9: Which trilingual inscription helped scholars decipher cuneiform?
Answer: Behistun
It is carved on a cliff in Iran.
Q10: What were scribal schools called?
Answer: Tablet houses
Students copied signs for years.

Cuneiform Quiz – Clay Tablets and Mesopotamian Writing

Cuneiform began among the Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia around 3200 BCE. Scribes pressed a cut reed into wet clay, leaving wedge-shaped marks that give the script its name.

The earliest tablets recorded grain, livestock and trade, but writing soon spread to letters, laws and literature. Cuneiform was adapted for Akkadian and many other languages over 3,000 years.

The Epic of Gilgamesh and Hammurabi's law code were written in it, and students learned in tablet houses. The trilingual Behistun inscription helped scholars decipher the script in the 1800s, reopening a lost world of ancient records.

What This Quiz Teaches

History fans will enjoy these questions.

Who invented cuneiform
How it was written
What it recorded
Which texts survive
How it was deciphered

Did You Know?

Baked clay tablets can survive thousands of years.
The library of Ashurbanipal held thousands of tablets.
Hundreds of thousands of tablets have been found.
Henry Rawlinson copied the Behistun inscription.
The last known cuneiform tablets date to around the first century CE.