Chapter 1: The Invention of Writing

Paleolithic to the Neolithic

35,000 BCE

From the early Paleolithic to the Neolithic period (35,000–4000 B.C.), early Africans and Europeans left paintings in caves, including the Lascaux caves in France and Altamira in Spain.

Cave painting from Lascaux

15,000 BCE

Cave painting from Lascaux, c. 15,000–10,000 B.C. Random placement and shifting scale signify prehistoric people’s lack of structure and sequence in recording their experiences.

Agriculture

8000 BCE

In “the land between rivers,” early humans ceased their restless nomadic wanderings and established a village society. Around 8000 B.C., wild grain was planted, animals were domesticated, and agriculture began

Copper

6000 BCE

By the year 6000 B.C., objects were being hammered from copper.

Cuneiform

3200 BCE

Is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions which form its signs.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

3200 BCE

Was the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters.

Early Sumerian pictographic tablet

3100 BCE

Early Sumerian pictographic tablet, c. 3100 B.C. This archaic pictographic script contained the seeds for the development of writing. Information is structured into grid zones by horizontal and vertical division.

Blau Monument

3100 BCE

The Blau Monument may be the oldest extant artifact combining words and pictures on the same surface

The Bronze Age

3000 BCE

The Bronze Age was ushered in about 3000 B.C. when copper was alloyed with tin to make durable tools and weapons; the invention of the wheel followed. The leap from village culture to high civilization occurred after the Sumerian people arrived near the end of the fourth millennium B.C.

Invention of Writing

3000 BCE

Of the numerous inventions that launched people onto the path of civilization, the invention of writing brought about an intellectual revolution that had a vast impact upon social order, economic progress, and technological and future cultural developments

Papyrus

3000 BCE

A paperlike substrate for manuscripts made from a plant that grew along the Nile in shallow marshes and pools

Ziggurat

2200 BCE

A multistory stepped brick temple constructed as a series of recessed levels that were smaller toward the top

Petroglyphs

2000 BCE

Throughout the world, from Africa to North America to the islands of New Zealand, prehistoric people left numerous petroglyphs which are carved or scratched signs or simple figures on rock. Many of the petroglyphs are pictographs, and some may be ideographs or symbols to represent ideas or concepts. A high level of observation and memory is evidenced in many prehistoric drawings.

Stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi

1800 BCE

Stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi, which was initially written between 1792 and 1750 B.C. Above the densely textured law code, King Hammurabi is shown on a mountaintop with the seated sun god Shamash, who orders the king to write down the laws for the people of Babylon. A graphic image of divine authority as the source for the code becomes powerful visual persuasion.

Code of Hammurabi (Cuneiform)

1800 BCE

Detail of the Code of Hammurabi, c. 1800 B.C. Whether pressed into clay or carved into stone as shown here, Mesopotamian scribes achieved masterful control and delicacy in their writing and arrangement of the strokes in the partitioned space.

Vignette from Papyrus of Ani

1420 BCE

1–26. Vignette from the Papyrus of Ani, c. 1420 B.C. Ani, a royal scribe, temple accountant, and granary manager from Thebes, and his wife, Thuthu, arrive for his final judgment.

Scarab of Ikhnaton and Nefertiti

1370 BCE

Scarab of Ikhnaton and Nefertiti, c. 1370 B.C. B.C. This 6-centimeter (2.4-inch) scarab bears the cartouche of lkhnaton on the side shown. The engraved hieroglyphs of the flat bottom were etched with a bronze needle.

Sarcophagus of Aspalta, King of Ethiopia (Hieroglyphics)

593 BCE

Sarcophagus of Aspalta, King of Ethiopia, c. 593–568 B.C. The inscriptions carved into this granite sarcophagus demonstrate the flexibility of hieroglyphics.

The Rosetta Stone

197 BCE

The Rosetta Stone, c. 197–196 B.C. From top to bottom, the concurrent hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek inscriptions provided the key to the secrets of ancient Egypt.