* Record Keeping: The ancient Sumerians, who are credited with inventing cuneiform, were a sophisticated society with a complex system of trade, agriculture, and governance. They needed a way to record transactions, track inventory, and keep legal records. Cuneiform allowed them to do this efficiently.
* Administration: As societies grew more complex, they required a system for managing resources, taxes, and labor. Cuneiform enabled them to organize and administer their affairs with greater precision.
* Communication: Writing allowed ideas, laws, and stories to be shared across distances and across generations. It facilitated communication between different communities and helped to unify cultures.
* Religious Practices: Cuneiform was used to record religious texts, hymns, and prayers. It played a significant role in preserving and transmitting religious knowledge.
The key factor driving its development was the need for a reliable and efficient system for managing a growing and increasingly complex society.
It's worth noting that cuneiform evolved over time. It began as a system of pictographs, where each symbol represented a distinct object. But as the language grew more complex, these pictographs became more abstract and were used to represent syllables and sounds. This allowed for a much wider range of expression.
Overall, cuneiform writing was a revolutionary invention that played a crucial role in the development of ancient Mesopotamian civilization. It facilitated communication, record-keeping, and administration, and had a lasting impact on the world.