History of writing
The history of writing traces the development of writing systems and how their use transformed and was transformed by different societies. The use of writingas well as the resulting phenomena of literacy and literary culture in some historical instanceshas had myriad social and psychological consequences.
Each historical invention of writing emerged from systems of proto-writing that used ideographic and mnemonic symbols but were not capable of fully recording spoken language. True writing, where the content of linguistic utterances can be accurately reconstructed by later readers, is a later development. As proto-writing is not capable of fully reflecting the grammar and lexicon used in languages, it is often only capable of encoding broad or imprecise information.
Early uses of writing included documenting agricultural transactions and contracts, but it was soon used in the areas of finance, religion, government, and law. Writing allowed the spread of these social modalities and their associated knowledge, and ultimately the further centralization of political power.
Terminology
s typically satisfy three criteria. Firstly, writing has some purpose or meaning to it. Secondly, writing systems make use of specific symbols which may be recorded on some writing medium. Thirdly, the symbols used in writing generally correspond to elements of spoken language. In general, systems of symbolic communication like signage, painting, maps, and mathematical notation are distinguished from writing systems, which require knowledge of an associated language to read a text.The norms of writing generally evolve more slowly than those of speech; as a result, linguistic features are frequently preserved in the written form of a language after they cease to appear in the corresponding spoken language.
Emergence
Before the 20th century, most scholarly theories of the origins of writing involved some form of monogenesis, the assumption that writing had been invented only once as cuneiform in ancient Sumer, and spread across the world from there via cultural diffusion. According to these theories, writing was such a particular technology that exposure through activities like trade was a much more likely means of acquisition than independent reinvention. Specifically, many theories depended on a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and reflect the relative focus given to locations in Mesopotamia in the Genesis narrative. Over time, greater awareness of the systems of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica conclusively established that writing had been independently invented multiple times. Four independent inventions of writing are most commonly recognizedin Mesopotamia, in Egypt, in China before, and in Mesoamerica before.Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs both gradually evolved from proto-writing between 3400 and 3100 BC, with the earliest coherent texts appearing. Regarding Egyptian hieroglyphs, scholars point to very early differences with Sumerian cuneiform "in structure and style" as to why the two systems " have developed independently", and if any "stimulus diffusion" of writing did occur, it only served to transmit the bare idea of writing between cultures. Due to the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing, "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt."
During the 1990s, symbols inscribed between 3400 and 3200 BC were discovered at Abydoswhich initially caused some scholars to doubt the assumption that the Mesopotamian sign system predated the Egyptian one. However, scholars have noted that the attestation at Abydos is singular and sudden, while the gradual evolution of the Mesopotamian system is lengthy and well-documented, with its predecessor token system used in agriculture and accounting attested as early as 8000 BC.
The Proto-Elamite script is also believed to have been used during this period, though Proto-Elamite inscriptions "have been, and will remain, highly problematic in a discussion of writing because they represent a very unclear period of literacy".
As there is no evidence of contact between the Chinese Shang dynasty and the literate civilizations of the Near East, and the methods of logographic and phonetic representation in Chinese characters are distinct from those used in cuneiform and hieroglyphs, written Chinese is considered to be an independent development.
ImageSize = width:600 height:auto barincrement:20
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:5 right:10
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:-3300 till:2025
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1000 start:-3000
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1000 start:-3000
Colors =
id:logo value:red legend:Logographic
id:abug value:yellow legend:Abugida
id:abja value:brightgreen legend:Abjad
id:alph value:blue legend:Alphabet
BarData =
bar:Hiero text:Egyptian hieroglyphs
bar:Cune text:Cuneiform
bar:Indus text:Indus script
bar:ProSin text:Proto-Sinaitic script
bar:LinB text:Linear B
bar:Anat text:Anatolian hieroglyphs
bar:Chin text:Chinese characters
bar:Phoen text:Phoenician
bar:Greek text:Greek alphabet
bar:Latin text:Latin alphabet
bar:Brahmi text:Brahmi script
bar:Maya text:Maya script
bar:Hebrew text:Hebrew
bar:Syriac text:Syriac
bar:Geez text:Ge ez
bar:Runes text:Runes
bar:Coptic text:Coptic
bar:Arabic text:Arabic
bar:Gothic text:Gothic
bar:Armeni text:Armenian alphabet
bar:Georg text:Georgian scripts
bar:Kana text:Japanese Kana
bar:Cyril text:Cyrillic alphabet
bar:Mongol text:Mongolian
bar:Hangul text:Hangul
bar:Yi text:Yi script
bar:Chero text:Cherokee syllabary
bar:Brail text:Braille
bar:Canad text:Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
PlotData=
width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:
bar:Hiero from:-3250 till:400 color:logo
bar:Cune from:-2900 till:100 color:logo
bar:Indus from:-2800 till:-1900 color:logo
bar:ProSin from:-1900 till:-1600 color:abja
bar:LinB from:-1450 till:-1200 color:abug
bar:Anat from:-1400 till:-700 color:logo
bar:Chin from:-1300 till:end color:logo
bar:Phoen from:-1050 till:-150 color:abja
bar:Greek from:-800 till:end color:alph
bar:Latin from:-700 till:end color:alph
bar:Brahmi from:-300 till:end color:abug
bar:Maya from:-300 till:1550 color:logo
bar:Hebrew from:-200 till:end color:abja
bar:Syriac from:50 till:end color:abja
bar:Geez from:50 till:350 color:abja
bar:Geez from:350 till:end color:abug
bar:Runes from:100 till:1100 color:alph
bar:Coptic from:150 till:end color:alph
bar:Arabic from:300 till:end color:abja
bar:Gothic from:350 till:600 color:alph
bar:Armeni from:405 till:end color:alph
bar:Georg from:430 till:end color:alph
bar:Kana from:800 till:end color:abug
bar:Cyril from:893 till:end color:alph
bar:Mongol from:1204 till:end color:alph
bar:Hangul from:1443 till:end color:abug
bar:Yi from:1450 till:1974 color:logo
bar:Yi from:1974 till:end color:abug
bar:Chero from:1820 till:end color:abug
bar:Brail from:1834 till:end color:alph
bar:Canad from:1840 till:end color:abug
Proto-writing
In each case where writing was invented independently, it emerged from systems of proto-writing, which used ideographic and mnemonic symbols to communicate information, but did not record human language directly. Historically, most proto-writing systems did not produce writing systems; the earliest writing dates to the Early Bronze Age, but proto-writing is attested as early as the 7th millennium BC. Examples of proto-writing during the Neolithic and Bronze Age include:- The Jiahu symbols carved into tortoise shells, found in 24 Neolithic graves excavated at Jiahu in northern China and dated to the 7th millennium BC. The majority of the signs uncovered were inscribed individually or in small groups on different shells. Most archaeologists do not consider the Jiahu symbols to be linked to the emergence of true writing.
- The Vinča symbols found on artefacts of the Vinča culture of central and southeastern Europe, dated to the 6th–5th millennia BC.
- Indigenous Australians used flattened or cylindrical lengths of wood as message sticks, which were engraved with symbols that conveyed complex information. As they were created with organic material, no pre-contact examples have yet been discovered, though correlations have been found between symbols in ancient Australian petroglyphs and those used on message sticks.
Later examples include quipu, a system of knotted cords used as mnemonic devices within the Inca Empire.
Bronze Age
Cuneiform
writing emerged in southern Mesopotamia during the late 4th millennium BC as a means of keeping accounts. Initially, proto-cuneiform developed as a numeral system where a round stylus was pressed into clay tablets, with distinct shapes made by applying the stylus at different angles; this system was gradually augmented with pictographic marks indicating what was being counted, which were made using a sharp stylus. By the 29th century BC, writing using a wedge-shaped stylus additionally included phonetic elements which represented syllables of the Sumerian languagebecoming a general-purpose writing system which gradually replaced round-stylus and sharp-stylus markings during the 27th and 26th centuries BC.From the 26th century BC, the system was adapted to write the Akkadian language which had spread across southern Mesopotamia as Sumerian ceased to be spokenwith Akkadian writing appearing in significant quantities. From Akkadian, cuneiform was subsequently adapted to write other languages, including Hurrian and Hittite. Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian.
In 1977, archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat proposed a theory that linked the development of cuneiform to a system of clay tokens used to track and exchange commodities in southern Mesopotamia from. The theory is widely contested among researchers of writing systems, with those arguing against a causal link including Geoffrey Sampson and Christopher Woods.