The archaic cuneiform keeps closely to this type, merely changing the lines into wedges, thus [--], while the later cuneiform first unites the oblique wedges in one [--] , and then omits them as unnecessary, retaining only the perpendicular and the horizontal ones [--].

Again, the character representing the word "hand" is, in the rectilinear writing [--] , in the archaic cuneiform [--], in the later cuneiform [--].

The five lines (afterwards reduced to four) clearly represent the thumb and the four fingers.

So the character ordinarily representing "a house" is evidently formed from the original -- , the ground-plan of a house; and that denoting "the sun" [--] , comes from [--] , through [--] , and [--] , the original [--] being the best representation that straight lines could give of the sun.

In the case of _ka,_ "a gate," we have not the original design; but we may see posts, bars, and hinges in [--] , the ordinary character.
Another curious example of the pictorial origin of the letters is furnished by the character [--] , which is the French _une,_ the feminine of "one." This character may be traced up through several known forms to an original picture, which is thus given on a Koyunjik tablet [--].