Final answer:
Cuneiform was the writing system developed by the ancient Sumerians, characterized by wedge-shaped symbols. It was crucial for documenting laws, trade, and culture on durable clay tablets, facilitating communication and record-keeping in ancient Mesopotamia.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Sumerian writing system is called cuneiform. This early form of writing was a groundbreaking invention for recording spoken language in symbolic form, evolving from simple pictographs to wedge-shaped symbols representing syllables. Cuneiform greatly impacted how ancient Sumerians documented various aspects of society, such as laws, religious texts, property transactions, commercial exchanges, contracts, receipts, and it was instrumental in the administration of taxes and payrolls. Not only did it become a durable record when inscribed on baked clay tablets, but it also held historical significance by offering insights into Sumerian cosmology and other cultures in Mesopotamia.
Literacy was confined to an elite class of scribes due to the complexity of cuneiform. However, its adaptability enabled different Mesopotamian societies, like the Akkadians and Babylonians, to adjust it to their own languages. Although cuneiform was not deciphered until the nineteenth century, the thousands of clay tablets that have since been discovered continue to reveal a wealth of knowledge about ancient societies in the region. Over time, cuneiform spread throughout the Middle East and was used for various languages until it was gradually replaced by simpler alphabetic scripts.