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The Sumerians first invented writing to communicate during long-distance trade. With the rise of cities in Mesopotamia, the need for resources was lacking and long-distance trade developed. This development needed a source of communication to be used across all cities and regions.
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The first written word was established in Sumer, southern Mesopotamia, between 3500-3000 BCE. It was called cuneiform which consisted of making specified marks in wet clay.
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The very first form of writing was pictographs which are symbols that represent objects and served as an aid in remembering things such as parcels of grain and how many sheep were needed for a sacrifice. These pictographs were pressed into wet clay and then dried. These were used as official records of commerce.
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The city of Uruk developed a more elaborate writing system in order to track financial transactions or lists of items. Pictograms were still in use, but phonograms, symbols that represent sounds, and those sounds were used as the spoken language of the people of Sumer. Phonograms were more precise with regard to finding the meaning of the sound. Phonograms took words to the next level because they are now able to show the means of conveying motion.
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Egyptians were already using their writing system before the rise of the Early Dynastic Period. The Egyptians´ hieroglyphics is sad to have developed cuneiform, though this theory is disputed.
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The Phoenician Writing System of the Greeks comes from the Greek word ¨phenetic¨ which means ¨to speak clearly¨. This writing system is quite different from Mesopotamia but still owes some development credit to the Sumerians.
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The Rebus Principle only has a few examples that exist in the very first stages of cuneiform(3200-3000 BC). The more consistent use of this form of phonetic writing becomes more apparent after 2600 BC. This started the beginning of a true writing system which was characterized by complex combination of ¨word-signs¨ and vowels or syllables. This allows ideas to be expressed.
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The first known writer in history is known as Enheduanna, the Mesopotamian priestess. She wrote hymns and sent them to the goddess Inanna and then signed them with her name and seal.
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The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered the first epic tale in the world and the oldest literature. It deals with the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, and his quest for the meaning of life. The city of Mesopotamia and its people are known for their stories of gods and heroes, the history, their methods of building, and myths were now recorded. Because of writing, historic events were now recorded and could be read in the future by anyone that is literate.
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The Matter of Aratta is a series of four poems about King Enmerkar and his son Lugalbanda. It is estimated that they were written between 2112-2004 BCE. The first poem explains that writing develops because the messenger of King Enmerkar had too much to remember so the King decided to start to write everything down. That is how writing started.
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Early cuneiform writers established a system that would completely change the world that they lived in. Stories and the past were now able to be preserved through writing. The Phoenicians contributed to the alphabet which made writing easier and more accessible to other cultures.
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The Chinese developed a writing form derived from the divination rites using oracle bones. It appears to have started independently from Mesopotamia. This practice involves etching marks onto bones or shells which were then heated until they cracked. The cracks were then interpreted by a Diviner. These etchings evolved into Chinese script.
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Independent from the Eastern language development, the Maya had developed a language(250 CE).
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Writing records the lives of a people and is the first step in the written culture or history of civilization. An example of its importance is when the Mayan Civilizations were first discovered and explorers had misinterpreted the civilization for an Egyptian Civilization because they did not fully understand the evidence they found.
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Writing first started with cuneiform which consisted of specific marks into wet clay. The Greeks, Romans, Mayans, and Chinese all made contributions to today's day. Pictographs and cuneiform are considered to be the base of the written word.
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Mark, Joshua J. “Writing.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 7 Nov. 2019, www.ancient.eu/writing.
