“Cuneiform was a difficult writing system to master, even after the Assyrians simplified it to only 560 signs. . . .
The general public held those who could write in awe, and it was believed that death occured when a divine scribe etched one’s name in a mythical Book of Fate.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.