The Dawn of Writing

The Oriental Institute in Chicago is currently running an exhibit about ancient writing entitled Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond.   Showcased in this exhibit are a collection of ancient Sumerian artifacts.   These artifacts are a collection of clay tablets with inscriptions on their surface, dating back around 5200 years ago.   This time period is widely accepted to be the dawn of writing.   This early writing does not resemble what we would recognize as writing today.   Instead of using an alphabet or a combination of symbols to represent a sound to encompass a thought or idea, early writing was done in a system which we call cuneiform.   Cuneiform being the first form of writing is very primitive in comparison with what we recognize today.   Whereas we would have a page full of elaborate combinations of letters to form words which we then organize into thoughts, cuneiform more resembles the simple drawings of a young person.   These primitive forms of writing were mroe like doodles than an organized writing system.   To an ancient Sumerian or Mesopotamian however these drawing would certainly have been a great human achievement.   This is the first time in human history that man has been able to keep a record of the world around him and the happenings therein.   Cuneiform is done in soft clay with a bone or some other hard tool that could be used to make impressions in the surface.
The exhibit at the Oriental Institute in Chicago, which is part of the University of Chicago, demonstrates an interesting concept.   It has always been widely accepted that writing originally started in the east and then spread westward toward Egypt.   This exhibit showcases artifacts and new discoveries that discount this theory.   It is now the belief of many in the historical and archaeological communities that written language in fact evolved separately and simultaneously in the Egyptian region.   The article in the New York Times states that “until...