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MARIE-LAN NGUYEN/CC 2.5 GENERIC, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

WEDGESMITHS. In Canaan, the scribes responsible for recording their kings’ correspondence had to be trained in how to write Akkadian. The cuneiform script used to write the language was dauntingly complex, with hundreds of different wedge-shaped signs—many with multiple phonetic and even logographic values—written on clay tablets using a reed stylus. The training process involved the use of multilingual lexical lists such as the one shown here from the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, which gives Sumerian words and their Akkadian equivalents.