Early Writing: Mark-Making, Notation Systems, and Scripts

Mark-Making

From making primitive marks on the cave walls in France to writing whole codes of law in Babylon, it is a constant evolution of how thoughts and ideas are represented and recorded.  It is hard to imagine that the languages around the world today could be directly related to the breakthrough of mark making in the earliest forms.  It is truly remarkable that our ancestors were the first designers and graphic artists.  Could that be the legacy of the human race?  The development and evolution of a single written expression that has blossomed into over 100 different languages in the world today? 1

Proto-Writing Systems

Although some of the early writing may have evolved from pictorial origins, others were often more schematic.  There are some notation systems found in the Near East that could be considered proto-writing.  These proto-writing systems differ from the pre-writing systems in the sense that the notation had stable meanings and value.

Cuneiform

These marks were made on a clay tablet with a wedge like tool and to a modern day viewer it does not look like anything more than a bunch of triangles and lines.  In reality the cuneiform writing system may be the oldest system of writing.  The development of the cuneiform was to make writing systems more efficient by simplifying the pictorial signs to more schematic ones.  It was used and integrated into the languages of the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.

Example of Akkadian Cuneiform 2

Varieties of Early Writing

It is interesting that not all writing evolved from Mesopotamia.  It appears that Egyptian and Chinese writing systems evolved independently from the Mesopotamian cuneiform.  The Egyptians were not the only culture to have developed hieroglyphic writing.  Both the Mayan and Aztec cultures utilized hieroglyphic languages and organization.  It is definitely curious to see different cultures on completely different parts of the world develop languages that are similar to each other.

Example of Mayan hieroglyphs 3

Literacy

Many scholars seems to think that literacy began with the advent of the Greek alphabet, yet there is a considerable list of cultures prior to this period that had written language.  Some earlier texts include: Hammurabi's Code of Babylon, the developed philosophical systems of India and Asia, and civic structures and administrations.  Perhaps when defining civilized cultures, one should ground their ideas in archaeological fact.  In order to advance technologically and socially, the culture most move from spoken word to written text.

Glossary

Acrophonic - the principle of naming a letter with a word that begins with that letter.

Cuneiform - writing composed of wedge-shaped signs made in web clay with a stylus by ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and others.

Logographic - of or pertaining to writing that represents words with visual signs.

Pictographic - of or pertaining to writing that represents words or ideas with pictorial signs

Hieroglyphic - literally, sacred carvings.

Works Cited

1.  "Language Listing." Languages of the World. 2007. National Virtual Translation Center. 07 Oct. 2008.

2.  "Language Affinities of Unspecified Analytic Weapon." 07 Oct. 2008.

3.  Ford, Anabel.  "Eyes Wide Shot: Exploring Solutions Past." 02 Oct. 2006. 07 Oct. 2008.