* Complexity of Cuneiform: Cuneiform was a complex system with hundreds of signs representing syllables, words, and concepts. This made learning and writing it time-consuming and challenging.
* Shifting Towards Alphabet: Over time, people recognized that simplifying the writing system by using symbols to represent individual sounds (phonemes) would be more efficient. This led to the development of alphabets, which use a smaller set of symbols to represent the sounds of a language.
* Influence on Later Scripts: Though not a direct descendant, the idea of representing sounds with symbols, which was a key development of cuneiform, influenced later writing systems like the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet, in turn, heavily influenced the development of the Greek alphabet, and from there the Latin alphabet used in many languages today.
So, while cuneiform itself was not an alphabet, it provided the foundation for the development of the simpler and more efficient systems we use today.