characteristic wedge-shaped appearance, diverging into two main traditions, Babylonian and Assyrian. b. Value of signs. (1) Functionally, signs in their earliest stage were logographic, i.e. they represented one or more specific words. A purely logographic writing system is per se not bound to any specific language: given a sequence of picture-signs representing THREE, SHEEP, GIVE, TEMPLE, a given social context might enable one to ‘read’ (adding formal modifications unexpressed in the writing system)