History of the Written Word

Mesopotamian Writing

3500 BCE

Around this time, the Mesopotamians began to express a very early form of writing made with pictogram-like markings. This would also include "Accounting tokens" which would be put onto variously sized clay slabs and ovals (typically smaller), and have a single mark on them. These carvings would eventually evolve into Cuneiform.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

3200 BCE

Hieroglyphs were what ancient Egyptians would typically use as their writing system. These would include various letters, pictograms, and some forms of an alphabet. Hieroglyphs have shown to have been used in smaller tokens, walls homes, pottery, and even tombs for the dead.

Phoenician Alphabet

1050 BCE

The Phoenician alphabet was another writing system, more focused on lettering than symbols of objects like the Egyptians had used. It read right-to-left, and would usually be incised with a stylus into stone or clay.

Invention of Papermaking

105

Sometime around 105 AD, Cai Lun, a court official of the Eastern Han Dynasty, is noted by most to have created the process and use of papermaking as it is known today.

Ballpoint Pen

Oct 30, 1888

The first U.S. patent for a ballpoint pen is issued to John J. Loud