The Invention of Writing 1350 B.C. - 1450 A.D.
Table of contents
The First...................................................................................3 Tockens....................................................................................4 3150 B.C...................................................................................5 3000 B.C...................................................................................6 2700 B.C...................................................................................7 2500 B.C...................................................................................8 2400 B.C...................................................................................9 1570-1379 B.C.......................................................................10 1570 B.C.................................................................................11 1500 B.C.................................................................................12 800 B.C...................................................................................13 540 B.C...................................................................................14 414-416 B.C...........................................................................15 160 B.C...................................................................................16 50 B.C.-500 A.D....................................................................17 79 A.D....................................................................................18 105 A.D..................................................................................19 100-600 A.D..........................................................................20 Undated..................................................................................21 3rd-6th Century....................................................................22 868 A.D..................................................................................23 8th-12th century...................................................................24 1034 A.D................................................................................25 11th-12th Century................................................................26 1450 A.D................................................................................27
The First Language existed long before writing, developing probably simultaneously with our existence. The signature event that shaped life as we know it now is rudimentary oral communication that replaced the hoots and gestures used by lower primates. The transfer of more complex information, ideas and concepts from one individual to another was the single most advantageous evolutionary adaptation for species preservation. As long ago as 25,000-30,000 years BP, humans were painting pictures on cave walls. Whether these pictures were telling a “story” or represented some type of “spirit house” or ritual exercise is not known.
Tokens The advent of a writing system seems to coincide with the transition from huntergatherer societies to more permanent agrarian encampments when it became necessary to count ones property, whether it be parcels of land, animals or measures of grain, or to transfer that property to another individual or another settlement. We see the first evidence for this with incised “counting tokens�.
3150 B.C. The tokens soon began to be symbols that could be impressed or inscribed in clay to represent a record of land, grain or cattle. One of the earliest examples was found in the excavations of Uruk in Mesopotamia, representing the time of the crystallization of the Sumerian culture.
3000 B.C. The pictures began as representing what they were, but eventually, certain pictures represented an idea, concept, and sounds. Eventually, the pictographs were stylized, rotated and in impressed in clay with a wedge shaped stylus to become the script known as Cuneiform.
2700 B.C. Another cuneiform tablet listing expenditures of grain and animals.
2500 B.C. Egyptians also used symbols called hieroglyphs to communicate. They were initially portryed on clay pots or tablets. Eventually, they we able to make papyrus, a writing material derived from the stems of the papyrus plant, show below.
2400 B.C. However, the Egyptians did not shy away from inscribing hieroglpyhs on objects despite the invention of papyrus. Shown is a false-door with hieroglyphic writing from Old Kingdom Egypt and more examples following.
1570-1349 B.C. Polychromed wood sculpture from New Kingdom Egypt, with hieroglyphic inscriptions.
1570 B.C. Inscriptions found at the site of the ancient torquoise mines at Serabit-alKhadim in the Sinai use less than 30 signs, definite evidence of a consonantal alphabet rather than a syllabic system.
This is the alphabet that was the precursor to Phoenician, Greek and Roman.
1500 B.C. The 22 characters of the Pheonician alphabet that was perhaps the first alphabetic script to be widely used.
800 B.C. The Greek adopted the Pheonician alphabet, perhaps in Euboea. The earliest forms of greek insciptions date from this time. Not short after, Homer writes the Iliad and Odyssey in greek.
540 B.C. The first public library is established in Athens, Greece. Aristotle was among the first to put together a private collection of books. It is said that the first libraries were not buildings specially designed to house books, but that books were stored on shelves in dedicated rooms or warehouses, and reading took place outdoors while taking a walk or seated under a porch.
414 - 413 B.C Greek manuscript writing.
Fragment of a Greek record of sale, carved on stone.
160 B.C. Parchment is invented in the Greek state of Pergamum, a new writing material made from animal skins, usually people used the skins of sheep or cows, because those animals were pretty common in West Asia and Europe.
50 B.C.- 500 A.D. Roman square capitals [capitalis quadrata] were carefully written with a flat pen.
79 A.D. Brush writing from a wall at Pompeii, preserved by the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius.
105 A.D. Ts’ai Lun invents paper in China. He made his paper by mixing finely chopped mulberry bark and hemp rags with water, mashing it flat, and then pressing out the water and letting it dry in the sun. He may have based his idea on bark cloth, which was very common in China and also made from mulberry bark.
100 - 600 A.D. Roman rustic writing [capitalus rustica] conserved space by using more condensed letters written with a flat pen held in an almost vertical position.
Undated The fluid gestural quality, harmonious proportions, and beautiful forms of Roman writing are effectively translated into the permanent stone carving of monumental capitals. [capitalis monumentalis].
3rd-6th century
Uncials are rounded, freely drawn majuscule letters, first used by the Greeks as early as the third century B.C.
868 A.D. The earliest extant printed manuscript, the Diamond Sutra, a Translation of the Classic Buddhist Text, is printed in China.
8th-12th Century
Caroline minuscules became the standard throughout Europe after Charlemagne issued his reform decree of 796, calling for a uniform writing style.
1034 A.D. Bi Sheng invents moveable type in China. The movable type is made of an amalgam of clay and glue hardened by baking, similar to Chinese porcelain. He composed texts by placing the types side by side on an iron plate coated with a mixture of resin, wax, and paper ash.
11th-12th Century
Early Gothic lettering, a transitional style between Caroline minuscules and Textura, has an increased vertical emphasis.
1450 A.D. Johann Gutenberg invents movable type in Mainz, Germany. Shown is a page from Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible, the first European typographic book [1450-1455].
Bibliography 1. Spar, Author: Ira. “The Origins of Writing.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. 2. “Writing.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. 3.“The Invention of Movable Type in China (Circa 1041 – 1048).” The Invention of Movable Type in China (Circa 1041 – 1048) : HistoryofInformation.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. 4. ”Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin.” Harry Ransom Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. 5. Jatimney. “The History of Library in the Ancient Greece.” Friends of Classics. N.p., 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2017.