Cuneiform times of Parthian Empire (250 BC – AD 226). The last known cuneiform inscription, an astronomical text, was written in 75 AD. The complexity of the system prompted the development of a number of simplified versions of the script. Old Persian was written in a subset of simplified cuneiform characters known today as Old Persian cuneiform. It formed a semi-alphabetic syllabary, using far fewer wedge strokes than Assyrian used, together with a handful of logograms for frequently occurring words like "god" and "king". Ugaritic was written using the Ugaritic alphabet, a standard Semitic style alphabet (an "abjad") written using the
Ma (cuneiform) Ma (cuneiform) The cuneiform ma sign, is found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the "Epic of Gilgamesh". In the Epic it is also used as the sumerogram MA, (for Akkadian language "mina", "manû", a weight measure, as MA.NA, or MA.NA.ÀM). The usage of cuneiform "ma" in the "Epic of Gilgamesh", is only exceeded by the usage of a (cuneiform) (1369 times, and 58, A (sumerogram), versus 1047 times for "ma", 6 for MA (sumerogram)). The high usage for "a" is partially a result of the prepositional use for "a-na"-(Akkadian "ana", "to, for", etc.); ""i"", also has