A CHRONOLOGY OF WRITING (CHIROGRAPHY)
WHEN
3500 BCE
WHAT/TYPE
Sumerian
Cuneiform,
Syllabary,
deciphered
WHERE
Mesopotamia
(Sumeria)
HOW
Wooden
triangular
stylus pressed
into soft or
“leathery”
clay
Cylinder seals
WHO
Court
bureaucrats,
priestly class
and scribes.
Becomes
model for
other Near
Eastern
written forms:
Akkadian,
Babylonian,
Hittite etc.
WHY
Theorized to
have originated
in bullae, or
clay tokens.
Commercial
record keeping
then used by
temples and
palaces to
record, taxes
and holdings.
Only later
applied to
literature
3500-3300
BCE
Hieroglyphics1,
syllabary;
deciphered
following
discovery
(1799 CE) of
the Rosetta
Stone (created
196 BCE);
deciphered by
J-F
Champollion in
1822
Egypt
Pigment on
papyrus
applied by
brush, and
chiseled into
rock used in
architecture.
Cursive form
named
hieratic
developed
later
Court
bureaucrats,
priestly class
and scribes;
may have
influenced
Linear A
Appear to have
been generated
by religious and
temple
institutions,
also used
extensively by
the royal
establishments
and scribes
serving both
2700 BCE,
disappears
following
1450 BCE
Linear A
script;
syllabary;
decipherment
remains very
uncertain as it
is not related
to any known
living
language
Crete (Minoan)
Incised on
pottery and
objects
Unknown,
although
surmised that
was used by
court
bureaucrats,
priestly class
and perhaps
scribes
Used by
palaces and
probably
scribes
employed by
them. Since
undeciphered
we have no
actual idea
what was
recorded or for
whose use
2500-1900
BCE,
Indus
(Harappan)
Script: type
unknown, and,
with no known
relationship to
a spoken
language, as
Indus Valley,
(today, India
and Pakistan)
Incised into
pottery,
copper plates,
predominantly
appearing in
stamp seals
(wooden
and/or clay
Unknown
Seems to have
been used only
for seals
1
The term “glyph,” originates in the ancient Greek glouphos = “carving”
yet undeciphered.
Some scholars
even reject it
as a form of
writing.
templates?)
c. 1850
BCE
Deriving from
Proto-Sinaitic,
the Semitic
scripts;
Phoenician
and Aramaic
abjads2.
The Levant,
ultimately
develops in
Phoenicia
(modern
Lebanon), Syria
and
Palestine/Israel,
later providing
basis of Arabic
script. Ancient
Greeks will
adapt these
symbols into
the first
alphabet
Incised or
carved onto
objects and
pottery, as
well as used
in graffiti
Being easier
to learn than
hieratic or
cuneiform
was probably
used by a
larger portion
of population.
Earliest forms
found in
graffiti incised
by itinerant
workmen
travelling
between their
homes in the
Levant and
Egypt where
work was to
be found
Administrative
and religious
uses.
Phoenician
inscribed into
objects to
dedicate them
to owners or
gods. Since
Phoenicians
were the main
traders in the
Mediterranean,
their
inscriptions can
be though of as
originating
commercial
branding
c. 17661122 BCE;
although
there are
indications
the script
may go
back as far
as 8000 BP.
Legendary
origins
suggest
they
characters
were
invented by
Cangjie, a
government
official, c.
2650 BCE
Sinography,
Chinese
characters
Shang Dynasty
China,
Appearing
first on oracle
bones3, then
cast in bronze
on votive and
ritual objects.
Written by
brush into
strip of
bamboo tied
to scrolls, and
then later
onto paper
Scribes and
scholars,
teachers,
court officials
and
bureaucrats
Religious and
palace
administrational
uses.
Dedication of
votive and
ritual objects.
Engraved in
stellae.
1200 – 900
BCE;
disappears
Linear B,
“Mycenaean”
script,
Crete and on
Greek mainland
after fall of
Incised onto
clay tablets
Used
predominantly
by palace
Administration
and recordkeeping, also
An abjad is any writing system wherein consonants are written although no symbols are available for
vowels, the latter being represented by diacritical markings above consonants. Hebrew and Arabic are
abjads.
2
3
Used to record divinations conducted for the Shang royal household.
completely
during the
Greek Dark
age
deciphered by
Michael
Ventris 19511953.
Minoan power
post 1450 BCE.
While closely
related to
Linear A, it was
used to encode
an early form of
Greek spoken
by the
Mycenaean
civilization
c. 700 BCE
Greek
alphabet:
composed of
symbols
representing
sounds,
“vocalic”
writing
providing
symbols for
consonants
and vowels;
adapted by
Greeks from
Phoenician
abjad
Taught in
schools to boys
of upper
classes, and
relatively
widespread in
urban
populations.
Hesiod (c. 750650 BCE), a
farmer, wrote
suggesting that
the spread of
literacy was not
limited to urban
contexts.
Incised and
carved into
objects and
on pottery,
written with a
reed pan on
papyrus
imported from
Egypt as well
as on wax
tablets with a
stylus.
Carved onto
stone stellae.
scribes in
administrative
applications
and contexts
some use in
correspondence
and early
chronological
accounts
Scribes as
well as lay
populations,
upper classes
predominantly
Used for
dedications,
poetry, and
within 350
years, during
the “Golden
Age” years for
prose, historian
Herodotus
(484-425 BCE)
and polymaths
Plato (428-348
BCE) and
Aristotle (384322 BCE),
being among
early
practitioners of
prose form.