The University of Oregon is proud to own real artifacts and facsimiles of a number of Cuneiform tablets and nails. Most of the tablets are clay nails, also referred to as dedication or foundation pegs, cones, or nails, which are cone-shaped nails made of clay, inscribed with cuneiform, baked and stuck into mud-brick walls to serve as evidence that the temple of building was the divine property of the god or king to whom it was dedicated. Cuneiform is named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions which form its signs. Along with Egyptian hieroglyphs, it is one of the earliest writing systems. In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets, also featured in this exhibition, were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.