How Writing Has Evolved Over Time

Cave Paintings

40,000 BCE

The first evidence of writing is Cave paintings. They usually only depicted daily life things. Things such as hunting, and fighting. Its considered writing over art because the paintings instead of just showing a picture, they tell a story.

Cuneiform Writing

3500 BCE

Cuneiform writing was developed in ancient Mesopotamia. They would get clay tablets and imprint their writing on the tablets.

Pictographs

3200 BCE

The people of Mesopotamia would use the cuneiform language to make pictographs. they would use it to see how much crop they had in storage, or to see how many sheep they needed for sacrifice, etc.

Epic of gilgamesh

2150 BCE

One of them most important and symbolic pieces of writing in history. The epic of Gilgamesh is considered to be the first masterpiece of writing. the story tells of Gilgamesh, a man out to find the meaning of life.

Phoenetic Writing Systems

1500 BCE

The Greeks and Romans developed there language through the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were considered the middle men of the ancient world. They influenced other cultures to develop the same way that they did. for example the Phoenicians language had sounds to go with there letters. The Greeks used this idea and developed it to the still used Alpha, Beta, Theta etc. (still used in the air force, navy etc.)

Chinese Writing

1200 BCE

The Chinese are thought to have developed there own language independently. They would use oracle bones, It first started with how a Diviner interpreted the weather. He would write if it would rain or not. The symbols that he wrote down would later evolve into the Chinese script.

Latin Script

700 BCE

The Latin script was developed from the Latin's/Romans. It started with the Phoenicians giving letters sounds. The Romans/Latin's took the idea of the Phoenicians and added on to it. Throughout history it has been an important foundation for many languages. As it lays the foundation for modern western language.