The History of Writing

In this blog post, I thought I would share the history of writing. The history of writing I find always interesting. The ways how this craft changed over the centuries or how people in the past took on writing as opposed to the modern world today I find just fascinating and I hope you do too.

When were the first forms of writing established?

The earlier forms of writing have been established since around 5500 years ago. Sumer around the Persian Gulf was the first region to bring writing into their traditions and lives in the time period of 3400 B.C.

What were the first types of writing systems?

Sumerian Archaic (pre-cuneiform) writing and Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems.

Sumerian Archaic: Was used in the time period of 3100 B.C

Here is a copy of what the Sumerian Archaic script looked like. In my opinion, this looks very different from how we write now.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Used in Ancient Egypt and contains 1000 distinct characters

I find this form of writing to be very pretty. All the symbols are really interesting to look at.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Why was writing invented?

Back in the days when they didn't have computers and phones to document their lives and stories, people decided they wanted some way to store these items and share them with future generations instead of just using words. People in Sumer started coming up with symbols to represent what they meant. This was known as "counting" and was one of the first writing/documenting systems.

How did writing impact early societies?

As the population grew and society evolved there were a bunch of practical uses for writing. Kings who implemented laws wanted a way to permanently "seal" them in so people would take them more seriously. It also made laws look and feel more official.

How do we use writing today?

We now use writing to store information, create permanent records of important things and use it to communicate with other people

In Conclusion:

In conclusion, writing has many practical uses back then and now. Looking back at the history of writing has been a fun and interesting journey for me. Without writing we wouldn't be able to document and communicate important things. I hope you read my next blog post!