History of writing
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History of writing
Six of the main historical writing systems: Sumerian
pictographs, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese ideograms, Old Persian
cuneiform, Roman alphabet, Indian Devanagari
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The history of writing traces the development of expressing language by letters or
other marks[1] and also the studies and descriptions of these developments.
In the history of how writing systems have evolved in different human civilizations, more
complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of ideographic or
early mnemonic symbols (symbols or letters that make remembering them easier). True
writing, in which the content of a linguistic utterance is encoded so that another reader
can reconstruct, with a fair degree of accuracy, the exact utterance written down, is a
later development. It is distinguished from proto-writing, which typically avoids encoding
grammatical words and affixes, making it more difficult or even impossible to reconstruct
the exact meaning intended by the writer unless a great deal of context is already
known in advance. One of the earliest forms of written expression is cuneiform.[2]
Contents
1Inventions of writing
2Writing systems
3Recorded history
4Developmental stages
o 4.1Literature and writing
5Locations and timeframes
o 5.1Proto-writing
o 5.2Bronze Age writing
5.2.1Cuneiform script
5.2.2Egyptian hieroglyphs
5.2.3Elamite script
5.2.4Indus script
5.2.5Early Semitic alphabets
5.2.6Anatolian hieroglyphs
5.2.7Chinese writing
5.2.8Cretan and Greek scripts
5.2.9Mesoamerica
o 5.3Iron Age writing
o 5.4Writing in the Greco-Roman civilizations
o 5.5Writing during the Middle Ages
o 5.6Renaissance and the modern era
6Writing materials
7See also
8Citations
9References
10Further reading
11External links
Inventions of writing[edit]
See also: List of languages by first written accounts
Sumer, an ancient civilization of southern Mesopotamia, is believed to be the place where written
language was first invented around 3100 BC
Writing was long thought to have been invented in a single civilization, a theory named
"monogenesis".[3] Scholars believed that all writing originated in
ancient Sumer (in Mesopotamia) and spread over the world from there via a process
of cultural diffusion.[3] According to this theory, the concept of representing language by
written marks, though not necessarily the specifics of how such a system worked, was
passed on by traders or merchants traveling between geographical regions. [4][5]
However, the discovery of the scripts of ancient Mesoamerica, far away from Middle
Eastern sources, proved that writing had been invented more than once. Scholars now
recognize that writing may have independently developed in at least four ancient
civilizations: Mesopotamia (between 3400 and 3100 BC), Egypt (around 3250 BC), [6][7]
China (1200 BC),[8] and lowland areas of Southern Mexico and Guatemala (by 500
[3]
BC).[9]
Regarding Egypt, several scholars[6][10][11] have argued that "the earliest solid evidence of
Egyptian writing differs in structure and style from the Mesopotamian and must
therefore have developed independently. The possibility of 'stimulus diffusion' from
Mesopotamia remains, but the influence cannot have gone beyond the transmission of
an idea."[6][12]
Regarding China, it is believed that ancient Chinese characters are an independent
invention because there is no evidence of contact between ancient China and the
literate civilizations of the Near East, [13] and because of the distinct differences between
the Mesopotamian and Chinese approaches to logography and phonetic representation.
[14]
Debate surrounds the Indus script of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization,
the Rongorongo script of Easter Island, and the Vinča symbols dated around 5,500 BC.
All are undeciphered, and so it is unknown if they represent authentic writing, proto-
writing, or something else.
The Sumerian archaic (pre-cuneiform) writing and Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally
considered the earliest true writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-
literate symbol systems from 3400–3100 BC, with earliest coherent texts from
about 2600 BC. The Proto-Elamite script is also dated to the same approximate period.
[15]
Writing systems[edit]
Main article: Writing system
Accounting tokens
Pre-cuneiform tags, with drawing of goat or sheep and number (probably "10"): "Ten goats", Al-Hasakah, 3300-
3100 BCE, Uruk culture.[16]
Clay accounting tokens. Susa, Uruk period
Clay envelope and its tokens. Susa, Uruk period
Symbolic communication systems are distinguished from writing systems. With writing
systems, one must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to
comprehend the text. In contrast, symbolic systems, such as information
signs, painting, maps, and mathematics, often do not require prior knowledge of a
spoken language. Every human community possesses language, a feature regarded by
many as an innate and defining condition of humanity (see Origin of language).
However the development of writing systems, and their partial supplantation of
traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, uneven, and slow. Once
established, writing systems on the whole change more slowly than their spoken
counterparts and often preserve features and expressions that no longer exist in the
spoken language.
Early Proto-cuneiform (4th millennium BCE) and cuneiform signs for the sexagesimal system (60, 600, 3600,
etc.).
There are considered to be three writing criteria for all writing systems. The first being
that writing must be complete. It must have a purpose or some sort of meaning to it. A
point must be made or communicated in the text. Second, all writing systems must have
some sort of symbols which can be made on some sort of surface, whether physical or
digital. Lastly, the symbols used in the writing system must mimic spoken word/speech,
in order for communication to be possible.[17]
The greatest benefit of writing is that it provides the tool by which society can record
information consistently and in greater detail, something that could not be achieved as
well previously by spoken word. Writing allows societies to transmit information and to
share and preserve knowledge.
Recorded history[edit]
Main articles: Recorded history and Early literature
The Kish tablet from Sumer, with pictographic writing. This may be the earliest known writing, 3500
BC. Ashmolean Museum
The origins of writing appear during the start of the pottery-phase of the Neolithic, when
clay tokens were used to record specific amounts of livestock or commodities. [18] These
tokens were initially impressed on the surface of round clay envelopes and then stored
in them.[18] The tokens were then progressively replaced by flat tablets, on which signs
were recorded with a stylus. Actual writing is first recorded in Uruk, at the end of the 4th
millennium BC, and soon after in various parts of the Near-East. [18]
An ancient Mesopotamian poem gives the first known story of the invention of writing:
Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat (the message), the
Lord of Kulaba patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had
been no putting words on clay.
— Sumerian epic poem Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. Circa 1800 BC.[19][20]
Scholars make a reasonable distinction between prehistory and history of early
writing[21] but have disagreed concerning when prehistory becomes history and when
proto-writing became "true writing." The definition is largely subjective. [22] Writing, in its
most general terms, is a method of recording information and is composed
of graphemes, which may, in turn, be composed of glyphs.[23]
The emergence of writing in a given area is usually followed by several centuries of
fragmentary inscriptions. Historians mark the "historicity" of a culture by the presence of
coherent texts in the culture's writing system(s).[21]
The invention of writing was not a one-time event but was a gradual process initiated by
the appearance of symbols, possibly first for cultic purposes.
Developmental stages[edit]
Standard reconstruction of the development of writing. [24][25] There is a possibility that the Egyptian script was
invented independently from the Mesopotamian script.[20]
Comparative evolution from pictograms to abstract shapes,
in Mesopotamian cuneiforms, Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese characters.
A conventional "proto-writing to true writing" system follows a general series of
developmental stages:
Picture writing system: glyphs (simplified pictures) directly represent objects and
concepts. In connection with this, the following substages may be distinguished:
o Mnemonic: glyphs primarily as a reminder.
o Pictographic: glyphs directly represent an object or a concept such as (A)
chronological, (B) notices, (C) communications, (D) totems, titles, and names,
(E) religious, (F) customs, (G) historical, and (H) biographical.
o Ideographic: graphemes are abstract symbols that directly represent an
idea or concept.
Transitional system: graphemes refer not only to the object or idea that it
represents but to its name as well.
Phonetic system: graphemes refer to sounds or spoken symbols, and the form of
the grapheme is not related to its meanings. This resolves itself into the following
substages:
o Verbal: grapheme (logogram) represents a whole word.
o Syllabic: grapheme represents a syllable.
o Alphabetic: grapheme represents an elementary sound.
The best known picture writing system of ideographic or early mnemonic symbols are:
Jiahu symbols, carved on tortoise shells in Jiahu, c. 6600 BC
Vinča signs (Tărtăria tablets), c. 5300 BC[26]
Early Indus script, c. 3100 BC
In the Old World, true writing systems developed from neolithic writing in the Early
Bronze Age (4th millennium BC).
Literature and writing[edit]
The history of literature begins with the history of writing, but literature and writing,
though obviously connected, are not synonymous. The very first writings from
ancient Sumer by any reasonable definition do not constitute literature. The same is true
of some of the early Egyptian hieroglyphics and the thousands of ancient Chinese
government records. Scholars have disagreed concerning when written record-keeping
became more like literature, but the oldest surviving literary texts date from a full
millennium after the invention of writing. The earliest literary authors known by name
are Ptahhotep (who wrote in Egyptian) and Enheduanna[27] (who wrote in Sumerian),
dating to around the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, respectively.
Locations and timeframes[edit]
Proto-writing[edit]
Main article: Proto-writing
Further information: Prehistoric numerals
See also: History of communication
Examples of the Jiahu symbols, markings found on tortoise shells, dated around 6000 BC. Most of the signs
were separately inscribed on different shells.[28]
The first writing systems of the Early Bronze Age were not a sudden invention. Rather,
they were a development based on earlier traditions of symbol systems that cannot be
classified as proper writing, but have many of the characteristics of writing. These
systems may be described as "proto-writing." They used ideographic or
early mnemonic symbols to convey information, but it probably directly contained
no natural language. These systems emerged in the early Neolithic period, as early as
the 7th millennium BC, and include:
The Jiahu symbols found carved in tortoise shells in 24 Neolithic graves
excavated at Jiahu, Henan province, northern China, with radiocarbon dates from
the 7th millennium BC.[29] Most archaeologists consider these not directly linked to
the earliest true writing.[30]
Vinča symbols, sometimes called the "Danube script" - are a set of symbols
found on Neolithic era (6th to 5th millennia BC) artifacts from the Vinča
culture of Central Europe and Southeastern Europe.[31]
The Dispilio Tablet of the late 6th millennium may also be an example of proto-
writing.
The Indus script, which from 3500 BCE to 1900 BCE was used for extremely
short inscriptions.
Even after the Neolithic, several cultures went through an intermediate stage of proto-
writing before they used proper writing. The quipu of the Incas (15th century AD),
sometimes called "talking knots," may have been such a system. Another example is
the pictographs invented by Uyaquk before the development of the Yugtun syllabary for
the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language in about 1900.
Bronze Age writing[edit]
Further information: History of the alphabet
Writing emerged in many different cultures in the Bronze Age. Examples are
the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Cretan hieroglyphs,
Chinese logographs, Indus script, and the Olmec script of Mesoamerica. The Chinese
script likely developed independently of the Middle Eastern scripts around 1600 BC.
The pre-Columbian Mesoamerican writing systems (including Olmec and Maya scripts)
are also generally believed to have had independent origins. It is thought that the first
true alphabetic writing was developed around 2000 BC for Semitic workers in the Sinai
by giving mostly Egyptian hieratic glyphs Semitic values (see History of the
alphabet and Proto-Sinaitic alphabet). The Ge'ez writing system of Ethiopia is
considered Semitic. It is likely to be of semi-independent origin, having roots in the
Meroitic Sudanese ideogram system.[32] Most other alphabets in the world today either
descended from this one innovation, many via the Phoenician alphabet, or were directly
inspired by its design. In Italy, about 500 years passed from the early Old Italic
alphabet to Plautus (750 to 250 BC), and in the case of the Germanic peoples, the
corresponding time span is again similar, from the first Elder Futhark inscriptions to
early texts like the Abrogans (c. AD 200 to 750).
Cuneiform script[edit]
Tablet with proto-cuneiform pictographic characters (end of 4th millennium BC), Uruk III.
Main article: Cuneiform script
The original Sumerian writing system derives from a system of clay tokens used to
represent commodities. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, this had evolved into a
method of keeping accounts, using a round-shaped stylus impressed into soft clay at
different angles for recording numbers. This was gradually augmented
with pictographic writing by using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted. By
the 29th century BC, writing, at first only for logograms, using a wedge-shaped stylus
(hence the term cuneiform) developed to include phonetic elements, gradually replacing
round-stylus and sharp-stylus writing by around 2700–2500 BC. About 2600 BC,
cuneiform began to represent syllables of the Sumerian language. Finally, cuneiform
writing became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and
numbers. From the 26th century BC, this script was adapted to the Akkadian language,
and from there to others, such as Hurrian and Hittite. Scripts similar in appearance to
this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian.
Egyptian hieroglyphs[edit]
Main article: Egyptian hieroglyphs
Designs on some of the labels or token from Abydos, carbon-dated to circa 3400-3200 BC and among the
earliest form of writing in Egypt.[33][34] They are remarkably similar to contemporary clay tags
from Uruk, Mesopotamia.[35]
Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy was
concentrated among an educated elite of scribes. Only people from certain
backgrounds were allowed to train as scribes, in the service of temple, royal
(pharaonic), and military authorities.
Geoffrey Sampson stated that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little
after Sumerian script, and, probably [were], invented under the influence of the latter",
[36]
and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in
writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia".[37][38] Despite the importance
of early Egypt-Mesopotamia relations, given the lack of direct evidence "no definitive
determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt".
[39]
Instead, it is pointed out and held that "the evidence for such direct influence remains
flimsy" and that "a very credible argument can also be made for the independent
development of writing in Egypt..." [40] Since the 1990s, the discoveries
of glyphs at Abydos, dated to between 3400 and 3200 BCE, may challenge the classical
notion according to which the Mesopotamian symbol system predates the Egyptian one,
although Egyptian writing does make a sudden appearance at that time, while on the
contrary Mesopotamia has an evolutionary history of sign usage in tokens dating back
to circa 8000 BCE.[34] These glyphs, found in tomb U-J at Abydos are written on ivory
and are likely labels for other goods found in the grave. [41]
Elamite script[edit]
Main article: Proto-Elamite script
The undeciphered Proto-Elamite script emerges from as early as 3100 BC. It is believed
to have evolved into Linear Elamite by the later 3rd millennium and then replaced
by Elamite Cuneiform adopted from Akkadian.
