Cuneiform Alphabet

This "liver omen" from Ras Shamra (picture from Edinburgh Ras Shamra Project) illustrates the use of cuneiform for alphabetic writing. It reads:

kbd . dt ypt
bn ykn
k ypth, . yrk
hnd

You can see that the sign at the left of the top and bottom lines represents "k". The next sign to the left of the middle line represents "b".

Test yourself by working out which symbol represents "n" before you look at the answer.