Writing Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==History and origins== {{Main|Proto-writing|List of languages by first written accounts|History of writing}} {{redirect-distinguish|Writings|Ketuvim}} ===Mesoamerica=== A stone slab with 3,000-year-old writing, known as the [[Cascajal Block]], was discovered in the Mexican state of [[Veracruz]] and is an example of the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere, preceding the oldest [[Zapotec writing]] by approximately 500 years.<ref>{{cite news |first=John Noble |last=Wilford |author-link=John Noble Wilford |title=Writing May Be Oldest in Western Hemisphere |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/science/15writing.html |quote=A stone slab bearing 3,000-year-old writing previously unknown to scholars has been found in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and archaeologists say it is an example of the oldest script ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere. |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=30 March 2008 |date=15 September 2006 |archive-date=27 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727145612/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/science/15writing.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Helen |last=Briggs |title='Oldest' New World writing found |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5347080.stm |quote=Ancient civilisations in Mexico developed a writing system as early as 900 BC, new evidence suggests. |publisher=BBC |access-date=30 March 2008 |date=14 September 2006 |archive-date=3 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403005953/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5347080.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rodríguez Martínez |first1=Maria del Carmen |last2=Ceballos |first2=Ponciano Ortíz |last3=Coe |first3=Michael D. |last4=Diehl |first4=Richard A. |last5=Houston |first5=Stephen D. |last6=Taube |first6=Karl A. |last7=Calderón |first7=Alfredo Delgado |title=Oldest Writing in the New World |journal=Science |date=15 September 2006 |volume=313 |issue=5793 |pages=1610–1614 |doi=10.1126/science.1131492 |pmid=16973873 |bibcode=2006Sci...313.1610R |s2cid=35140904 |quote=A block with a hitherto unknown system of writing has been found in the Olmec heartland of Veracruz, Mexico. Stylistic and other dating of the block places it in the early first millennium before the common era, the oldest writing in the New World, with features that firmly assign this pivotal development to the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica. }}</ref> It is thought to be [[Olmec]]. Of several [[pre-Columbian]] scripts in [[Mesoamerica]], the one that appears to have been best developed, and the only one to be deciphered, is the [[Maya script]]. The earliest inscription identified as Maya dates to the 3rd century BC.<ref name=Saturno2006>{{cite journal |last1=Saturno |first1=William A. |last2=Stuart |first2=David |last3=Beltrán |first3=Boris |title=Early Maya Writing at San Bartolo, Guatemala |journal=Science |date=3 March 2006 |volume=311 |issue=5765 |pages=1281–1283 |doi=10.1126/science.1121745 |pmid=16400112 |bibcode=2006Sci...311.1281S |s2cid=46351994 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing. ===Central Asia=== In 2001, archaeologists discovered that there was a civilization in [[Central Asia]] that used writing {{circa|2000 BC}}. An excavation near [[Ashgabat]], the capital of [[Turkmenistan]], revealed an inscription on a piece of stone that was used as a stamp seal.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ancient writing found in Turkmenistan |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1330705.stm |quote=A previously unknown civilisation was using writing in Central Asia 4,000 years ago, hundreds of years before Chinese writing developed, archaeologists have discovered. An excavation near Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, revealed an inscription on a piece of stone that seems to have been used as a stamp seal. |publisher=BBC |access-date=30 March 2008 |date=15 May 2001 |archive-date=7 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207141534/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1330705.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> ===China=== {{Further|Oracle bone script|Bronzeware script}} The earliest surviving examples of writing in China—inscriptions on so-called "[[oracle bone]]s", tortoise [[plastron]]s and ox [[scapula]]e used for divination—date from around 1200 BC in the [[Late Shang]] period. A small number of bronze inscriptions from the same period have also survived.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Cambridge History of Ancient China | editor1-first = Michael | editor1-last = Loewe | editor2-first = Edward L. | editor2-last = Shaughnessy | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1999 | isbn = 978-0-521-47030-8 | first = William | last = Boltz | chapter = Language and Writing | pages = 74–123 | title-link = The Cambridge History of Ancient China }}</ref> In 2003, archaeologists reported discoveries of [[Jiahu symbols|isolated tortoise-shell carvings]] dating back to the 7th millennium BC, but whether or not these symbols are related to the characters of the later oracle-bone script is disputed.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Archaeologists Rewrite History |journal=China Daily |date=12 June 2003 |access-date=4 January 2012 |url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jun/66806.htm |archive-date=26 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026123513/http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jun/66806.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Earliest writing' found in China |first=Paul |last=Rincon |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2956925.stm |quote=Signs carved into 8,600-year-old tortoise shells found in China may be the earliest written words, say archaeologists |work=BBC News |date=17 April 2003 |access-date=4 January 2012 |archive-date=20 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320140538/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2956925.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> ===Egypt=== [[File:Narmer Palette serpopard side.jpg|196px|thumbnail|right|[[Narmer Palette]], with the two [[Serpopard]]s representing unification of [[Upper Egypt|Upper]] and [[Lower Egypt]], circa 3100 B.C.E.]] The earliest known [[Egyptian hieroglyph|hieroglyphs]] are about 5,200 years old, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called "Scorpion I" (Naqada IIIA period, {{circa|32nd century BC}}) recovered at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) in 1998 or the [[Narmer Palette]], dating to {{circa|3100 BC}}, and several recent discoveries that may be slightly older, though these glyphs were based on a much older artistic rather than written tradition. The hieroglyphic script was [[logogram|logographic]] with phonetic adjuncts that included an effective [[Egyptian hieroglyph#Script|alphabet]]. The world's oldest deciphered sentence was found on a seal impression found in the tomb of [[Seth-Peribsen]] at Umm el-Qa'ab, which dates from the Second Dynasty (28th or 27th century BC). There are around 800 hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom Eras. By the Greco-Roman period, there are more than 5,000.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} Writing was very important in maintaining the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|Egyptian empire]], and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of [[scribe]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lipson |first=Carol |title=Rhetoric before and beyond the Greeks |publisher=SUNY Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0791460993 |editor-last=Lipson |editor-first=Carol S. |chapter=Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric: It All Comes Down to Maat |editor-last2=Binkley |editor-first2=Roberta A.}}</ref> Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train to become scribes, in the service of temple, pharaonic, and military authorities. The hieroglyph system was always difficult to learn, but in later centuries was purposely made even more so, as this preserved the scribes' status.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} The world's [[Middle Bronze Age alphabets|oldest known alphabet]] appears to have been developed by Canaanite turquoise miners in the Sinai desert around the mid-19th century BC.<ref>[[Orly Goldwasser|Goldwasser, Orly]]. "How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs", Biblical Archaeology Review, Mar/Apr 2010</ref> Around 30 crude inscriptions have been found at a mountainous Egyptian mining site known as Serabit el-Khadem. This site was also home to a temple of Hathor, the "Mistress of turquoise". A later, two line inscription has also been found at [[Wadi el-Hol]] in Central Egypt. Based on [[hieroglyph]]ic prototypes, but also including entirely new symbols, each sign apparently stood for a consonant rather than a word: the basis of an alphabetic system. It was not until the 12th to 9th centuries, however, that the alphabet took hold and became widely used.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} ===Elamite scripts=== Over the centuries, three distinct Elamite scripts developed. [[Proto-Elamite]] is the oldest known writing system from Iran. In use only for a brief time ({{circa|3200}}–2900 BC), clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran, with the majority having been excavated at [[Susa]], an ancient city located east of the [[Tigris River|Tigris]] and between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9781315658032-20 |chapter=The proto-Elamite writing system |title=The Elamite World |year=2018 |last1=Dahl |first1=Jacob L. |pages=383–396 |isbn=978-1-315-65803-2 }}</ref> The Proto-Elamite script is thought to have developed from early [[cuneiform]] (proto-cuneiform). The Proto-Elamite script consists of more than 1,000 signs and is thought to be partly [[logogram|logographic]]. [[Linear Elamite]] is a writing system attested in a few monumental inscriptions in Iran. It was used for a very brief period during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. It is often claimed that Linear Elamite is a syllabic writing system derived from Proto-Elamite, although this cannot be proven since Linear-Elamite has not been deciphered. Several scholars have attempted to decipher the script, most notably [[:de:Walther Hinz|Walther Hinz]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hinz |first=Walther |date=1975 |title=Problems of Linear Elamite |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25203649 |journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=2 |pages=106–115 |via=JSTOR}}</ref> and [[:it:Piero Meriggi|Piero Meriggi]]. The [[Elamite cuneiform]] script was used from about 2500 to 331 BC, and was adapted from the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] [[cuneiform (script)|cuneiform]]. At point within this period, the Elamite cuneiform script consisted of about 130 symbols, and over this entire period only 206 total signs were used. This is far fewer than most other cuneiform scripts.<ref name=":0" /> ===Europe=== {{Expand section|date=February 2023}} [[File:Lascaux 04 (with_circle).jpg|thumb|Representation of the potential [[History of writing#Recorded history of writing|first]] known (proto-)writing in history]] Notational signs [[Upper Paleolithic|from ~37,000 years ago]] in caves, apparently convey [[calendar]]ic meaning about the behaviour of animal species drawn next to them, and are considered [[History of writing#Recorded history of writing|the first]] known ([[proto-writing|proto-]])writing in history.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mysterious marks on Ice Age cave art may have been ancient records |url=https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mysterious-marks-ice-age-cave-art |access-date=15 February 2023 |work=Science News |date=27 January 2023 |archive-date=15 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230215212025/https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mysterious-marks-ice-age-cave-art |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bacon |first1=Bennett |last2=Khatiri |first2=Azadeh |last3=Palmer |first3=James |last4=Freeth |first4=Tony |last5=Pettitt |first5=Paul |last6=Kentridge |first6=Robert |title=An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar |journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal |date=5 January 2023 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=371–389 |doi=10.1017/S0959774322000415 |s2cid=255723053 |doi-access=free }}</ref> ====Cretan and Greek scripts==== {{Further|Cretan hieroglyphs|Linear A|Linear B}} [[Cretan hieroglyphs]] are found on artifacts of [[Crete]] (early-to-mid-2nd millennium BC, MM I to MM III, overlapping with Linear A from MM IIA at the earliest). [[Linear B]], the writing system of the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean Greeks]],<ref name=Olivier>{{cite journal |last1=Olivier |first1=J.‐P. |title=Cretan writing in the second millennium B.C. |journal=World Archaeology |date=February 1986 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=377–389 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1986.9979977 |s2cid=163509308 }}</ref> has been deciphered while [[Linear A]] has yet to be deciphered. The sequence and the geographical spread of the three overlapping, but distinct writing systems can be summarized as follows (beginning date refers to first attestations, the assumed origins of all scripts lie further back in the past): Cretan hieroglyphs were used in Crete from {{circa|1625}} to 1500 BC; Linear A was used in the [[Aegean Islands]] ([[Kea (island)|Kea]], [[Cythera (island)|Kythera]], [[Milos|Melos]], [[Santorini|Thera]]), and the [[Greek mainland]] ([[Laconia]]) from {{circa|18th century}} to 1450 BC; and Linear B was used in Crete ([[Knossos]]), and mainland ([[Pylos]], [[Mycenae]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], [[Tiryns]]) from {{circa|1375}} to 1200 BC.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} ===Indus Valley=== {{Main|Indus script}} Indus script refers to short strings of symbols associated with the [[Indus Valley Civilization]] (which spanned modern-day [[Pakistan]] and [[North India]]) used between 2600-1900 BC. Despite attempts at [[decipherment]]s and claims, it is as yet undeciphered. The term 'Indus script' is mainly applied to that used in the mature Harappan phase, which perhaps evolved from a few signs found in early [[Harappa]] after 3500 BC.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Whitehouse |first1=David |title='Earliest writing' found |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/334517.stm |work=BBC News |date=4 May 1999 }}</ref> The script is written from right to left,{{sfn|Mukhopadhyay|2019|page= 2}} and sometimes follows a [[boustrophedonic]] style. In 2015, the epigrapher Bryan Wells estimated there were around 694 distinct signs.{{sfn|Wells|2015|page=13}} This is above 400, so scholars accept the script to be logo-syllabic{{sfn|Stiebing|Helft|2018|page=104–105}} (typically syllabic scripts have about 50–100 signs whereas logographic scripts have a very large number of principal signs). Several scholars maintain that structural analysis indicates an [[agglutinative]] language underlies the script.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} ===Mesopotamia=== While research into the development of writing during the [[Neolithic|late Stone Age]] is ongoing, the current consensus is that it first evolved from economic necessity in the [[ancient Near East]]. Writing most likely began as a consequence of political expansion in ancient cultures, which needed reliable means for transmitting information, maintaining financial accounts, keeping historical records, and similar activities. Around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form.{{sfn|Robinson|2003|p=36}} The invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the emergence of civilisations and the beginning of the [[Bronze Age]] of the late [[4th millennium BC]]. The [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] archaic [[cuneiform script]] and the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400 to 3300 BC<ref>{{Cite web |title=British Library |url=https://www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/where-did-writing-begin |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=www.bl.uk |archive-date=11 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311085214/https://www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/where-did-writing-begin |url-status=live }}</ref> with earliest coherent texts from about [[26th century BC|2600 BC]]. It is generally agreed that Sumerian writing was an independent invention; however, it is debated whether Egyptian writing was developed completely independently of Sumerian, or was a case of [[cultural diffusion]]. [[File:Accountancy clay envelope Louvre Sb1932.jpg|thumb|upright|Globular envelope with a cluster of accountancy tokens, Uruk period, from [[Susa]]. [[Louvre Museum]]]] Archaeologist [[Denise Schmandt-Besserat]] determined the link between previously uncategorized clay "tokens", the oldest of which have been found in the Zagros region of Iran, and the first known writing, [[Mesopotamian]] [[cuneiform]].<ref name="Rudgley">{{cite book | title=The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age| last=Rudgley| first=Richard| author-link=Richard Rudgley| year=2000| pages=48–57| publisher=Simon & Schuster| location=New York}}</ref> In approximately 8000 BC, the Mesopotamians began using clay tokens to count their agricultural and manufactured goods. Later they began placing these tokens inside large, hollow clay containers (bulla, or globular envelopes) which were then sealed. The quantity of tokens in each container came to be expressed by impressing, on the container's surface, one picture for each instance of the token inside. They next dispensed with the tokens, relying solely on symbols for the tokens, drawn on clay surfaces. To avoid making a picture for each instance of the same object (for example: 100 pictures of a hat to represent 100 hats), they 'counted' the objects by using various small marks. In this way the Sumerians added "a system for enumerating objects to their incipient system of symbols".{{quote without source|date=June 2023}} The original [[Mesopotamian]] writing system was derived around 3200 BC from this method of keeping accounts. By the end of the 4th millennium BC,<ref>{{cite book|chapter=The Origin and Development of the Cuneiform System of Writing|first=Samuel Noah|last=Kramer|author-link=Samuel Noah Kramer|title=History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History|pages=381–383|isbn=978-0-8122-7812-5|year=1981|edition=3rd|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}</ref> the Mesopotamians were using a triangular-shaped stylus pressed into soft clay to record numbers. This system was gradually augmented with using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted by means of [[pictographs]]. Round-stylus and sharp-stylus writing was gradually replaced by writing using a wedge-shaped stylus (hence the term [[cuneiform script|cuneiform]]), at first only for [[logogram]]s, but by the 29th century BC also for phonetic elements. Around 2700 BC, cuneiform began to represent syllables of spoken [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]. About that time, Mesopotamian cuneiform became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and numbers. This script was adapted to another Mesopotamian language, the [[East Semitic]] [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ([[Old Assyrian period|Assyrian]] and [[Babylonia]]n) around 2600 BC, and then to others such as [[Elamite language|Elamite]], [[Hattian language|Hattian]], [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]] and [[Hittite language|Hittite]]. Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for [[Ugaritic language|Ugaritic]] and [[Old Persian language|Old Persian]]. With the adoption of [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] as the 'lingua franca' of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (911–609 BC), Old Aramaic was also adapted to Mesopotamian cuneiform. The last cuneiform scripts in Akkadian discovered thus far date from the 1st century AD.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} ===Phoenician writing system and descendants=== The [[Proto-Sinaitic]] script, in which [[Proto-Canaanite]] is believed to have been first written, is attested as far back as the 19th century BC. The [[Phoenician script|Phoenician writing system]] was adapted from the Proto-Canaanite script sometime before the 14th century BC, which in turn borrowed principles of representing phonetic information from [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]. This writing system was an odd sort of syllabary in which only consonants are represented. This script was adapted by the [[Greek alphabet|Greeks]], who adapted certain consonantal signs to represent their vowels. The [[Cumae alphabet]], a variant of the early Greek alphabet, gave rise to the [[Etruscan alphabet]] and its own descendants, such as the [[Latin alphabet]] and [[Rune]]s. Other descendants from the [[Greek alphabet]] include [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], used to write [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Serbian language|Serbian]], among others. The Phoenician system was also adapted into the [[Aramaic script]], from which the [[Hebrew script|Hebrew]] and the [[Arabic script]]s are descended.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} The [[Tifinagh]] script (Berber languages) is descended from the [[Libyco-Berber alphabet|Libyco-Berber script]], which is assumed to be of Phoenician origin.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} ===Religious texts=== {{See also|History of writing#Writing and religion|Myth}} In the [[history of writing]], [[religious texts]] or writing have played a special role. For example, some religious text compilations have been some of the earliest popular texts,<!--, introduced societal rules {{see above|[[#Governance and law|above]]}},--> or even the only written texts in some languages, and in some cases are still highly popular around the world.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Henri-Jean |title=The History and Power of Writing |date=1994 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-50836-8 }}{{page needed|date=June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Sarah Iles |title=Ancient Religions |date=30 September 2007 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-26477-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FSEsEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA133 |language=en |access-date=2 March 2023 |archive-date=26 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426224052/https://books.google.com/books?id=FSEsEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA133 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Barry B. |title=Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization |year=2009 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-6256-2 |page=12 }}</ref> The first books printed widely using the [[printing press]] [[Gutenberg Bible|were bibles]]. Such texts enabled rapid spread and maintenance of societal cohesion, [[collective identity]], motivations, justifications and [[belief]]s that e.g. notably [[Religious war|historically supported or enabled large-scale warfare between modern humans]]. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page