Cuneiform to left-to-right in horizontal rows (rotating all of the pictographs 90° counter-clockwise in the process) and a new wedge-tipped stylus was introduced which was pushed into the clay, producing wedge-shaped ("cuneiform") signs; these two developments made writing quicker and easier. By adjusting the relative position of the tablet to the stylus, the writer could use a single tool to make a variety of impressions. Cuneiform tablets could be fired in kilns to bake them hard, and so provide a permanent record, or they could be left moist and recycled, if permanence was not needed. Many of the clay tablets found
A (cuneiform) , connected (ligatured, attached to "a")-, ligatured to cuneiform "a" is the ia (cuneiform)--. It has usages in the Akkadian language for words starting with "ia", for example "iā'u", (English "mine"), "iāši", (English "(to) me"), and "iāti", (English "me"). In the Amarna letters "ia" is also used as a suffix: -ia, for example Amarna letter EA 325, ""To King (Pharaoh)-Lord-mine" (-ia), "God-mine", "Sun-God-mine", ..." ("A-na Lugal-bēlu-ia, An-meš-ia, An-UTU-ia, ...") The Amarna letter usage of cuneiform "a" has the same high usage for Akkadian language "ana" (a-na) as does the "Epic of Gilgamesh". Two other high usages for "a" and typical