The Sumerian language (the oldest written language of Mesopotamia, with no known relatives) enters a pictographic stage about 3100.

Sumerians develop, or perhaps borrow, a system for representing speech—not ideas, as in earlier systems—by means of a set of standardized visual symbols.

The Sumerians cuneiform writing system consists of characters made with wedge-shaped strokes impressed into clay, brick, or stone.

Among extensive Late Uruk materials found at Brak/Nagar is a standard text for educated scribes (the "Standard Professions" text, known from Uruk IV), part of the standardized education taught in the third millennium BCE over a wide area of Syria and Mesopotamia.