The Invention of Writing

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

 The exact time and place when Homo sapiens first appeared is still
unknown. But scientists believe we evolved from a species that
once lived in southern Africa.
 Early hominids began exploring grassy plains and caves. In these
new environments, they started walking upright, and their hands
became capable of grasping and carrying objects, including food.
 A sharp stone found near Lake Turkana in Kenya shows early
humans made tools, maybe for digging or cutting meat.
 Over time, humans experienced evolutionary advancement that
helped them live in communities and have more control over their
lives. One key change was speech—the use of sounds to
communicate. Later, writing was developed as a visual form of
speech.

 The invention of writing marked a significant milestone in human

history, ushering in the age of civilization. It allowed people to
preserve their knowledge, experiences, and ideas. This form of
visible language began with simple pictures.
Prehistoric visual communication
 Between the early Paleolithic
and Neolithic periods (35,000–
4000 B.C.), early humans in
Africa and Europe created
cave paintings, such as those
found in the Lascaux caves of
France and the Altamira caves
in Spain.
 Black was made from charcoal, and a range of warm tones, from
light yellows through red-browns, were made from red and yellow
iron ox ides. This palette of pigments was mixed with fat as a
medium.
 These early cave paintings were made primarily for three purposes:
ritual, survival, and utility. This was not the beginning of art as we
know it.
 The animals and objects illustrated in these caves are known as
pictographs— elementary pictures or sketches representing the
things depicted.
 Across the globe—from Africa
to North America and even
the islands of New Zealand—
prehistoric peoples also left
behind petroglyphs, which are
figures or markings carved or
scratched into rock surfaces.

 Petroglyphs are images

representing ideas or
concepts
 Some of these petroglyphs may have been ideographs,
which are symbols used to express abstract ideas or
concepts.

 By the late Paleolithic period, some petroglyphs and

pictographs had been reduced to the point that they
almost resembled letters.
 Cradle of Civilization
 Until recent findings revealed that early communities in Thailand
may have developed agriculture and pottery even earlier,
archaeologists widely considered ancient Mesopotamia—known
as “the land between rivers”—to be the birthplace/cradle of
civilization.

 In this region, early humans gave up their nomadic lifestyle and

began forming settled village communities. By around 8000 B.C.,
they started cultivating wild grains, domesticating animals, and
practicing agriculture. By 6000 B.C., they had learned to shape
copper into tools and objects.
The Earliest Writing in
Mesopotamia
 Why Writing Was Needed

- Human memory is unreliable

- Questions that needed answers:
- Who paid taxes?
- How much food is in storage?
- Is it enough until the next harvest?
Early Sumerian proto-cuneiform using a mnemonic or
ideographic writing system where signs resemble
concrete objects, pictographic tablet, c. 3100 BCE. This
archaic pictographic script contained the seeds for the
development of writing.
Archaic tablet fragment from the late fourth
millennium BCE. The drilled hole denotes a number,
and the pictographs represent animals in this
transaction of sheep and goats
 How cuneiform formed?

• Around 2800 BCE, scibes turned the pictographs into

simple and made pictograph less literal.
• It made writing easy.
• Scribes- person who copies documents.
• Sharp pointed stylus with a triangular tip is pushed
down instead of dragging down the stylus.
• Characters were now composed of series of wedge-
shape strokes rather than continuous line drawings.
• It evolved into abstract line drawing (see figure 1.6)
 As graphic form of writing was evolving, the ability to record
information was expanding.
 Pictures/ literal symbols transformed into more abstract ideograph
Ex: sun = “light” or “day”
 They developed their written language to function in the same way
as their speech, the need to represent spoken sound not easily
depicted arose.
Ex: adverb, preposition, personal names could not adapt to
pictographic representation
Rebus writing- is a puzzle device that combines the
use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to
depict words or phrases. (according to wiki)

Ex.

+
Do not eat
 Eddula- scribal school for the Sumerian language.
 Collection of laws such as Code of Hammurabi (written
in eight century BCE)

 Code of Hammurabi is written in careful cuneiform on

2.5 meter tall stele.
 The stele contains 282 laws, gridded in 21 columns
 Stele bearing the Code of
Hammurabi, which was developed
between 1792 and 1750 BCE.
Above the densely textured law
code, King Hammurabi is shown on
a mountaintop with the seated sun
god Shamash, who orders the king
to write down the laws for the
people of Babylon.
PAPYRUS AND WRITING
 Papyrus Development

The development of papyrus, a paper-like writing material, was a

major advancement in Egyptian communication. It came from the
Cyperus papyrus plant, which thrived in the Nile marshes.
Egyptians used nearly every part of the plant—for example, flowers
for temple garlands, roots for tools and fuel, and especially stems to
create items like sails, mats, rope, cloth, sandals, and of course,
writing material.
 How Papyrus Was Made (Pliny’s
Description)

 Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) described how papyrus was
made:
 Remove the rind, then slice the inner pith into long strips.
 Lay one layer horizontally, then another vertically.
 Soak them in Nile water, then press or hammer them.
 The plant’s own glutinous sap acted like natural glue.
 After sun-drying, sheets were smoothed with ivory or stone.
 Any flawed sheets were peeled apart and remade.
There were eight grades of papyrus used for different purposes. Each
sheet had two sides:

•Recto (horizontal fibers – front)

•Verso (vertical fibers – back)

The tallest papyrus sheets measured 49 centimeters.

Up to 20 sheets could be glued together and rolled into a scroll, with

the recto side inward.
 Writing Process

Scribes wrote while holding the scroll

with their left hand, starting at the
outer right edge, drawing columns of
hieroglyphs from top to bottom.

This book hand style evolved from

monumental hieroglyphs, simplified
into quick brush gestures.
 Development of Hieratic Script

By 1500 BCE, Egyptian priests developed hieratic script

(from Greek "priestly")—a faster version of hieroglyphs for
religious texts. It used rush pens instead of brushes, resulting
in more abstract and angular forms.
 Demotic Script

By 400 BCE, a more abstract script called

demotic (Greek for “popular”) was used for
secular, commercial, and legal writings.
The first illustrated
manuscripts
 Illustrated Manuscripts & Afterlife Beliefs

Egyptians were the first to create illustrated manuscripts that

combined words and images to tell stories and share information.
These works were mostly driven by their obsession with death and
belief in the afterlife.
They believed in a complex mythology where the soul underwent
trials before reaching paradise or facing eternal damnation. To assist
with this journey, scribes and artists created funerary papyri called
"Chapters of Coming Forth by Day", later named “The Book of the
Dead” by 19th-century scholars.
A funerary text is a written work created to guide the deceased in the afterlife.
These texts often include prayers, spells, and instructions to help the soul
navigate the spiritual realm safely.

The plural of "papyrus" is "papyri.“

These papyrus scrolls were often placed in the coffin or tomb alongside the
body.
 Evolution of Funerary Texts

The Book of the Dead was actually the third stage of funerary
text evolution. It started with the Pyramid Texts around 2345 BCE
during Pharaoh Unas’ reign, where walls of pyramids were
covered in hieroglyphic writings—hymns, myths, and prayers
meant to guide pharaohs into the afterlife.
Next came the Coffin Texts, where writings and images
were drawn all over wooden coffins or stone sarcophagi.
This allowed noblemen and officials (not just pharaohs) to
access the same spiritual benefits without paying for a full
pyramid.
 Democratization via Papyrus

By the New Kingdom (c. 1580 BCE), papyrus manuscripts

became standard for funerary texts. These were more
affordable, allowing even ordinary citizens to have their own
guide to the afterlife.
This shows how funerary practices became more
democratic, reflecting Egypt’s shifting social and secular
values.
 Structure & Content of Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead was written as if the deceased was

narrating their own journey in the underworld. It contained:
Illustrations of what would happen after death (Fig. 1-
31)
Magical spells to transform into animals or gain power
Passwords to pass through underworld gates
Help from gods like Ra and Osiris
The visuals showed beautiful
“afterlife destinations” like:

•Fields of Peace
•Becoming a star
•Sailing with Ra in his solar boat
•Ruling the underworld with
Osiris
 The Final Judgment (Papyrus of Ani)
In Papyrus of Ani, the deceased’s heart is weighed against a feather of
truth.
Anubis (jackal-headed god) manages the weighing.
Thoth (ibis-headed scribe god) records the results.
If you fail, Ammit (a mix of crocodile, lion, and hippo) will eat your
heart.
A register of 42 gods presides over the trial.
The deceased makes a “negative confession”, denying sins like murder,
theft, and lying. Then he pleads to his own heart not to betray him. If he
passes, he “comes forth by day”—meaning he successfully transitions to
the afterlife.
 Papyrus Design Format

Egyptian illustrated manuscripts had a consistent design

layout:
 1–2 colored bands at the top and bottom
 Vertical columns of hieroglyphs, written right to left
 Images next to the relevant text
 Sometimes divided into rectangular zones for clarity
 Aesthetic contrast: dense hieroglyphs vs. open, colorful
illustrations
 Illustration Process and Roles
In early versions:
•Scribe designed the layout, leaving blank spaces for illustrations.
•Over time, illustrations became more important.
•Later, artists drew the vignettes first, and scribes squeezed in the text
afterward—even writing in the margins if space ran out.
Artists and scribes weren't always top-tier:
•Skilled artists were hired, but scribes were not scholars.
•Passages were sometimes skipped due to layout issues or poor
execution.
Illustrations were:
•Drawn in contour lines using black or brown ink
•Colored with white, black, brown, blue, green, and sometimes yellow
•Blues and greens possibly inspired by Nile River’s colors and plants