The History of Writing
c. 8,000 BCE – ongoing49 items
writingTen thousand years of making speech visible
From clay counters in the Neolithic Near East to a character set that holds almost every script ever written — and emoji. Writing was invented from scratch at least four times: in Mesopotamia, in Egypt, in China and in Mesoamerica. Almost everything else on this timeline descends from one of those four, or was designed by one person who had seen writing and wanted it for their own language.
Bands show how long each great script was in use — cuneiform for three and a half thousand years, hieroglyphs for as long — and the incunabula years when print was new. Early dates carry honest uncertainty: most are archaeological, and several are still argued over.
Six threads
first writing— the independent inventionsalphabets— from Sinai to Phoenicia, Greece and Koreainvented scripts— writing designed by one personbooks— paper, printing and burningdecipherment— reading the dead scripts againsoftware— writing as numbers: ASCII to Unicode
Some dates are kept in the calendar their source used: the last hieroglyphic inscription is dated in the Coptic calendar, whose years still count from Diocletian as the Philae priests did, and older days such as the Diamond Sutra’s are Julian.
This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories. — the Egyptian king Thamus on the invention of writing, in Plato’s Phaedrus, translated by Benjamin Jowett
Items
Tokens sealed in clay envelopes
Proto-cuneiform tablets at Uruk
Labels in tomb U-j at Abydos
Narmer Palette
First literature at Abu Salabikh
The Ebla archive
Enheduanna, the first named author
Alphabetic inscriptions at Wadi el-Hol
Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim
Ahiram sarcophagus inscription
Cascajal block
Dipylon jug
San José Mogote Monument 3
Behistun inscription
Early Maya writing at San Bartolo
Ashoka’s edicts in Brahmi
Memphis decree on the Rosetta Stone
Last datable cuneiform tablet
Cai Lun presents paper to the court
Last hieroglyphic inscription, at Philae
Paper made in Baghdad
Glagolitic alphabet
Diamond Sutra printed
Bi Sheng’s movable type
Jikji printed with metal type
King Sejong creates Hangul
Hunminjeongeum promulgated
Landa burns the Maya books at Maní
Rosetta Stone found
Sequoyah’s Cherokee syllabary
Champollion cracks the hieroglyphs
First issue of the Cherokee Phoenix
Braille publishes his system
Ventris announces Linear B is Greek
Proskouriakoff reads Maya history
ASCII standard published
Adlam alphabet invented
Unicode 1.0
Kurita’s emoji
Emoji enter Unicode