{Arrowheaded characters}, characters the elements of which
consist of strokes resembling arrowheads, nailheads, or
wedges; -- hence called also nail-headed, wedge-formed,
cuneiform, or cuneatic characters; the oldest written
characters used in the country about the Tigris and
Euphrates, and subsequently in Persia, and abounding among
the ruins of Persepolis, Nineveh, and Babylon. See
{Cuneiform}.