When was writing invented and where? What advantages does the invention of writing have for human development?

Though there is some debate surrounding exactly which group of humans was the first to create a written language, it is generally accepted that it was the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia – the so called “cradle of civilisation”. This innovation allowed the Sumerians to record transactions, educate and perform administrative duties more easily, contributing to their cultural and scientific development.

The Sumerians cuneiform (comprised from wedge shapes) written script evolved from an agricultural counting system employed in ancient Mesopotamia to manage taxes and trades. Prior to the written script, farmers would hold decorated tokens that corresponded to particular goods of theirs, such as sheep, grain or land. However, this system became cumbersome when persons owned vast quantities of agricultural items and was later simplified by substituting the physical tokens for drawn representations on clay tablets. Though originally appearing as unordered pictograms, this unification of previously separate symbols onto single tablets set the framework for the future Sumerian cuneiform, and eventually became less pictorial and more abstract, partially due to the nature of the primitive styli and clay tablets employed by the scribes. The development of phonograms and new characters to represent other non-agricultural and trade related ideas also occurred as the benefits of the written language became clear. Particularly, the establishment of phonograms allowed scribes to record the names of people and ideas that lacked standardised written representation, while previously established symbols were also adapted to this purpose. For example, “Luka” (a name now seen as “Luke”) could be represented through the use of the head (“Lu”) and the mouth (“Ka”) symbols, because of their pronunciation. This advancement was also made possible by the ordering of the characters, which were read left to right, at some point in its development.

The benefits of written language were clear in Mesopotamian society, which was full of ancient science and culture. The use of language was central to this advancement because it allowed scientific observations and culturally significant practises like religious rites and mythology to be accurately recorded and preserved. Written language, which had once been used exclusively to manage transactions and taxation, could now be used to record the movements of celestial bodies and to compose letters to friends. Scribes and their apprentices (the male children of rich citizens) also learnt and taught material from written script, showing writing’s importance in education. All of these applications of writing have been central to our development as humans, both culturally and scientifically.

The Sumerians were the first to create written language, and in doing so promoted the development of their society’s culture and scientific understanding.

Typical Sumerian cuneiform letter:


The development of some Sumerian symbols (from pictorial to cuneiform forms):


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http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/writing.html

http://www.historian.net/hxwrite.htm

http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/writing/writing.htm

http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html

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