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
Pa (cuneiform) Pa (cuneiform) The cuneiform pa sign, (as sumerogram, PA), has many uses in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the "Epic of Gilgamesh". It is routinely and commonly used to spell the Akkadian language word "pānu", "face, presence", and with a preposition (ex. ana pānu), "before". In the photo of the obverse of EA 364, it is used to spell Akkadian "eperu", 'dust', (EA 364, lines 7,8: "...and (ù dust (IŠ (sumerogram)=dust)) and (u)\ dust "-(a-pa-ru). (The two ""and""-s are u-(no. 3), then u-(no. 1)-(u (cuneiform))(the bottom half).) The alphabetic/syllabic uses and sumerograms of the 'pa' sign from