What advantage was there to cuneiform writing over picture writing?

Cuneiform writing, while initially pictographic, evolved into a syllabic system, which offered several advantages over pure picture writing:

* Efficiency: Syllabic writing uses symbols to represent syllables, not whole words. This makes writing much faster and more efficient, as you need fewer symbols to represent a given idea.

* Flexibility: With syllabic writing, you can combine symbols to represent different words and grammatical concepts. This allowed for a greater range of expression compared to picture writing, where each symbol generally represents a specific object or idea.

* Abstract Concepts: Syllabic writing could more easily express abstract concepts, like emotions, ideas, and processes. Picture writing struggled to depict these abstract ideas effectively.

* Wider Accessibility: Syllabic writing was easier to learn and use than a fully pictographic system, which required memorizing hundreds of individual symbols. This made writing more accessible to a larger population.

While cuneiform was a significant advancement, it still contained some elements of pictographic writing. However, its transition to a predominantly syllabic system made it a far more efficient and flexible tool for communication and record-keeping.