The origins of ‘proto-writing’ can be traced back to Ice Age cave art, but full writing – defined as ‘a system of graphic symbols that can be used to convey any and all thought’ – is the invention of a complex, bureaucratic civilization. Theories abound on the origins of writing, but the first step on the journey is thought to have begun in the 9th millennium BC with the beginnings of agriculture. Numerous clay tokens have been found on excavations in the Middle East dating to this period, and these have been interpreted as counting devices, so that one coin shaped token carved with a cross would equal one sheep. By the second half of the 4th millennium BC these tokens were enveloped by clay ‘bullae’ (Latin for ‘bubble’) on which symbols representing the contents were scratched. As trade developed, clay tokens and bullae were eventually replaced with flat tablets, as three-dimensional tokens began to be substituted by two-dimensional symbols.

This system was simplified and refined so that by around 3000 BC, the scribes abbreviated their scratching’s to bring not just the idea of an object to mind, but also the sounds of the words.

The 4 Oldest Written Languages-

1. Sumerian

When: c.3400 – 1 AD

Where: Southern Mesopotamia

Sumerian is the oldest attested written language. It was used by the people of Sumer in Southern Mesopotamia and is an isolate language, which means it’s not related to any other existing language. Sumerian continued to be used in written documents, usually in legal and administrative contexts, well after the spoken language was taken over by Akkadian, the date of which is still debated today.

2. Egyptian Hieroglyphics

When: 3200 BC – 400 AD

Where: Egypt

The symbols used in Hieroglyphics represented objects that actually existed in Ancient Egyptian life, with sentences for example composed from symbols for plants, body parts and birds. The key to their translation was the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799 (see the main image above) which has the same message inscribed in Hieroglyphics, Egyptian Demotic and Greek.

3. Akkadian

When: 2500 BC – 1st C AD

Where: Mesopotamia

Akkadian is a Semitic language, which originated in northern Mesopotamia and in time spread to encompass the whole country, finally taking over from Sumerian. The cuneiform script it uses was adapted from Sumerian script, resulting in many borrowed words and lexical merging. It developed into the lingu franca of the Ancient Near East but began to be replaced by Aramaic in the 8th century BC.

4. Eblaite

When: c. 2400 BC – 550 BC

Where: Ebla (modern western Syria)

Eblaite is very similar to Akkadian and also written using cuneiform script. Some scholars believe it may in fact be a dialect of Akkadian, whereas others argue it is a separate ‘sister’ language.

Music: Kaddish (Angelic Instrumental) by Dhruva Aliman
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