History of Writing Systems 15000 – 10000 BCE
Cave paintings at Lascaux 1
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Drawing of visual communication using pictographs, elementary pictures or sketches that represent things depicted.
3600 BCE
Blau Monument combines images and early writing
3100 BCE
Early Sumerian pictographic scripts on clay tablets
3100 BCE
King Zet’s ivory tablet, earliest Egyptian pictographic writing 3
2750 BCE
Formal land-sale contracts written in cuneiform 4
2600 BCE
Early surviving papyrus manuscripts 5
2345 BCE
Pyramid texts in tomb of Unas 6
1739 BCE
Scarab of Ikhnaton and Nefertiti
1650 BCE
Stamp-cylinder seal 8
Inscribed stone objects from Mesopotamia. Etched writing and carved relief figures. This pictographic script contained seeds for development of writing. Information is structured into grids by horizontal and vertical division.
Abstract writing that only few could understand.
Paper like substrate for manuscripts. Papyrus is made from papyrus flowers, which is also used for other items such as sails, mats, cloth, rope, and sandals. 3
Decorative and textural qualities were carved into stone. 7
Carved scarab emblems were used as identification seals. The flat underside was engraved with a hieroglyphic inscription. Hittite, a signature that combines decorative figures and images. It has an image on the side for rolling, and an image on the bottom for stamping. This allows images to be reproduced.
Hieratic scripts
1420 BCE
Papyrus of Ani
1300 BCE
Early Book of the Dead papyrus scrolls
197 BCE
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The writing evolved into hieroglyphics.
1500 BCE
400 BCE
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Invented and developed for keeping records, accounts, and writing letters.
Demotic scripts
A northern variant of the Hieratic script. Used for writing documents in ink on papyrus. 9
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Rosetta Stone
Used to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics by Champollion.
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