About 3500 BC, people in West Asia began to use writing. Because nobody had invented paper yet, these people wrote on clay tablets, scratching the words in with a reed pen. You can use clay and a stick (or a reed) to make your own cuneiform tablet, either copying a real cuneiform inscription, or making up your own symbols.
As you work, think about how writing on a clay tablet is different from or the same as writing on paper. Is it harder or easier? What do you do about erasing mistakes? What would happen to it in a fire? Can you write as small as you can on paper? Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of paper and clay tablets.