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
Ab (cuneiform) AB, Akkadian language for "šību", "elder". In the corpus of the Amarna letters, which is another common use place for 'ab/ap', the name of some of the authors of letters to the Pharaoh, are for example Labaya, and Ayyab. In both cases the use is syllabic for "ab". The usage numbers for the "ab" cuneiform sign in the twelve, Tablets I-XII, of the "Epic of Gilgamesh", are as follows: ab-(11), ap-(28), and sumerogram AB-(12); for "šību", Akkadian language for "elder", only two spellings use "AB"; six other spelliings of "šību" are syllabic/alphabetic. Ab (cuneiform) The cuneiform ab, and ap sign,