By Man has been writing for 4,000 years. Ancient peoples used it as a tool to record and manage commercial exchanges. Let’s explore more about it.
Writing is something basic and essential for us in our daily lives. However, this technology has not always existed. In fact, it had its beginnings in the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia, China and Egypt. How did it originate? In this article we will tell you who invented writing and how it developed.
In particular, we will explore the birth of the cuneiform system among the Sumerian people. We will also investigate what existed before the traces we know today and how they evolved. Join us on this historical journey!
Where and when was writing invented?
In reality, we cannot know for certain who invented writing. However, it is attributed to a caste of scribes from Uruk, a Sumerian city. Its inhabitants were a people settled on the banks of the Euphrates River, in lower Mesopotamia.
The technique adopted by the Sumerians was called cuneiform and they used it on rectangular clay tablets. The writing material was a reed with a triangular tip. They drew signs on the tablets with the aim of immortalizing them.
To achieve strong and durable tablets, scribes baked the tablets at high temperatures. In this way, they ensured that their inscriptions became a perennial material, capable of withstanding the passage of time.
The purpose of writing in Sumerian literature was to record administrative aspects of the city, making it an essential means of documenting business transactions. These tablets contained inventories, treaties, laws, taxes, hymns, and even literature.
Who invented writing in other cultures?
Although Sumeria is the birthplace of the first written forms, other peoples also invented their own system. This was the case in China, Egypt and Greece. In this sense, these ancient populations are considered the precursors of written expression.
Origin of Chinese writing
We can say that writing was invented in China by a group of diviners from the Shang dynasty , around 1200 or 1300 BC. It was a highly developed system, which is one of the only ones that has survived to this day.
Inscriptions on bones were originally made for oracular purposes. This means that they were used by court diviners to predict and transmit advice from ancestors.
Another characteristic of Chinese writing is the use of techniques with brushes and bamboo strips. With the establishment of the Zhou dynasty, the use of this instrument was extended to other materials, such as wood and silk. In addition, they used inscriptions engraved on bronze.
Origin of Egyptian writing
The invention of writing in Egyptian culture dates back to hieroglyphics. These appeared around 3100 BC and consisted of iconographic or pictographic signs depicted on stones or columns. It is believed that the Egyptians invented writing because of the cultural influence of Mesopotamia.
After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BC, Egyptian writings were visible in temples. Therefore, it is believed that they were only understood by priests. They also had an artistic side, as the inscriptions were found on paintings, statues and bas-reliefs .
Over time, they perfected their materials and techniques and went from writing on stone or monuments to using ink and papyrus.
Origin of Greek writing
The birth of Greek writing is the system closest to the realization of the alphabetic principle and, therefore, of our own. Everything comes from the commercial crossing between Phoenicia and Greece in the 7th century BC.
At that time in history, the Greeks had a permanent trading post on the Phoenician coast. During these trade exchanges, the Greek merchants adopted the principles of Phoenician writing, which is why it is said that Greek writing is of Phoenician origin.
Its evolution had important impacts on culture and politics: it favoured the development of democracy. This is because the laws were set out in writing and most citizens could understand them. Therefore, it was a system accessible to the majority due to the ease of learning it.
What was there before the invention of writing?
Before there was writing or the representation of phrases and words through pictures, some people had a graphic numbering system. This was symbolized by knots in ropes, dots and dashes, inscribed on pottery and holes in long bones. These codes served to remember and memorize objects that had been delivered or sent.
Over time, ancient peoples were forced to perfect their systems based on their needs. This is how the signature emerged, for example. This was a way of identifying the person who delivered or sent the merchandise. The material used to do this was unique and unrepeatable cylindrical seals.
Thus, the systems preceding writing emerged as mnemonic procedures. They sought to remedy the fragility of human memory . Now, how did we go from archaic numeration to writing?
The Rebus principle
The transition from the graphic numbering system to the written one occurred through the Rebus principle, according to Jesús Mosterín in his book Theory of Writing .
This principle is based on using iconographic signs that represent certain words to symbolize others that are pronounced or sound similar. As a result, what was previously a static image comes to represent sounds or phonemes.
Importance of writing
Our writing is a far cry from what it was in earlier times. But this evolutionary process occurred thanks to the development of the capacity for abstraction. As an article published by the International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences argues , this progress occurred due to the expansion of information processing.
As different needs arose, the people in charge of managing cities had to develop increasingly efficient technologies. Over time, this innovation spread to other areas of communal life. In this way, writing could also be used to communicate the inner workings of our thoughts.
Thus, there was a progressive path from the representation of real and concrete goods to the externalization of words and ideas. Today we cannot imagine a life in which writing does not exist, since it is present at all times and at all times.
The legacy of what is written in human history
As we have seen throughout this article, it is difficult to give a precise name to who invented writing because we are many years away from its origin. What we can confirm is that it emerged in Sumeria around 4000 BC. From there, different ancient peoples devised their own systems.
At first, they were just images; over time, these came to symbolize sounds, ideas and concepts. The evolution of writing is important for the development of our capacity for abstraction and information processing. The more the ancients needed to record, the more they perfected their method.
Nowadays, we cannot imagine a life without writing; thanks to it we have books , we compose songs and much more. Even without this technology, our world would be very different. Because how could humanity progress? We owe a lot to the birth of writing.