The History of Writing: From Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Emojis

In this article we are going to be taking a brief but insightful tour through the history of writing, stopping along the way at some of the major events that have shaped modern written language.

Since the very first written word was carved into a block of clay some 5000 years ago, written language has become an invaluable tool that has allowed mankind to reach new technological and sociological heights. Since the days of carving cuneiform into stone, written language has seen countless advancements from the creation of the first alphabet to the invention of the printing press. As a result we now live in a society so heavily founded in written language, that it’s hard to think about what the world would be like without it.

Now, if we were to write out everything that happened over the thousands of years that writing has been around, we would be here for days, and you would probably end up with a degree by the end of it. So instead, we are going to do a brief pitstop tour through humanity's timeline, only stopping at the most significant events that have shaped written language into what we know it as today.

So, take a seat and join us as we take a stroll through time.

Cave Paintings

Before we dive into the history of written language, we first need to look at cave paintings. Appearing all over the world, cave paintings have been discovered dating back to between 30,000 and 50,000 BCE, with the oldest cave painting dating back to around 51,200 years ago. These pre-neolithic paintings have been attributed to not only early homo sapiens but Neanderthals, Denisovans, and several other species of the Homo Genus as well.

The non-random nature and apparent storytelling that many cave paintings exhibit mean they could be the earliest known evidence of written language. Often consisting of basic pictures depicting daily life, cave paintings can only really be conceptually understood but they still offer an invaluable insight into the lives of early humans and the development of Homo Sapien intelligence.

While we can’t really label cave paintings as 'writing', they are evidence of humanity's first steps toward civilised society.

Who Invented Writing?

To start, let’s take a look at where writing came from and who first put pen to paper (Metaphorically speaking. Paper didn’t appear until a few thousand years later).

Cuneiform – 3500 BCE

There is often a misconception that the Ancient Egyptians invented writing with the introduction of hieroglyphs, but as old as this ancient form of writing is, it’s not the oldest. Archaeological evidence suggests that writing first appeared circa 3200 BCE in Ancient Mesopotamia; more specifically Uruk, a city in the region of Sumer near the Persian Gulf (modern-day Iraq). Known today as Cuneiform, this ancient written language, perhaps unbeknown to Sumerian people at the time, was the start of something that would evolve to cover the globe and become a staple of mankind.

Modern archaeology has traced the birth of this ancient language to around 3200 BCE, so just over 5000 years ago; that’s over 1500 years before the extinction of the woolly mammoth!

As you might expect, Cuneiform was very different from the writing we use today, but thanks to advancements in modern technology, in-depth studies, and the continued use of the language for thousands of years after its conception, it’s possible for us to translate this ancient text.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs - 3300 BCE

Just a few hundred years later we see the introduction of the first ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Although some argue that markings found on pottery dating back to circa 4000 BCE are hieroglyphs, this ancient language is largely recognised to have been officially developed around 3300 BCE. Introduced as the formal written language for Ancient Egyptian religious practices, hieroglyphs consisted of a series of hand-drawn symbols and shapes.

Hieroglyphs remained present in various religious practices for thousands of years, being used as late as the 5th century AD when the last of the Roman pagan temples were closed. It was only then that hieroglyphs were lost to the mists time, until that is, they were rediscovered in the 1820’s by Jean-Francois Champillion. Accurate translations of this ancient written language remained elusive until Champillion was able to use the Rosetta Stone to unravel the secrets of this ancient text (more on that later).

The First Known Author – 2285 BCE

Jumping forward now roughly 1000 years to circa 2285 – 2250 BCE we come across the world’s first author known by name - Enheduanna. Enheduanna was believed to be the High priestess of Ur and the daughter of Sargon of Akkad.

Enheduanna is the author of various hymns and poems that are dedicated to the worship of the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Some examples of Enheduanna’s writings include Exaltation of Inanna which features her as the first-person narrator, and Goddess of the Fearsome Powers which tells the story of goddess Inanna’s victory over the mountain god Ebih after he fails to show her the proper respect.

Much of ancient Sumerian literature was focused on their gods, but as time went on, humans slowly became the focus of many authors, this is evident in poems like Enmerkar & the Lord of Aratta and Lugalbanda & Mount Hurrum, which are some of the longest ancient Sumerian epics discovered to date.

The Epic of Gilgamesh – 2150 BCE

Possibly one of the most well-known examples of Ancient Sumerian Literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, is spread across 12 incomplete stone tablets. It is regarded as the best and most complete text from ancient Mesopotamia and tells the story of Gilgamesh, king of the city-state of Uruk. Discovered by Austen Henry Layard, his assistant Hormuzd Rassam, and W. K. Loftus among 15,000 fragments of Assyrian cuneiform tablets in the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh almost 175 years ago, it has since been an invaluable tool for the translation of the ancient cuneiform language.

The Phoenician Alphabet – 1100 BCE

Considered the first true alphabet by most experts, the Phoenician Alphabet formed the foundations for the development of countless modern scripts including Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew. The Phoenician Alphabet differs from previous written languages like those from the Sumerians and Egyptians because where those predecessors used symbols and pictures to represent words and phrases the Phoenician Alphabet featured a collection of symbols that represented sounds, thus could be grouped together to form words.

Developed by the Phoenician Prince, Cadmus, around the year 1100 BCE to better facilitate trade with neighbouring states, the Phoenician Alphabet quickly spread, eventually pathing the way for various new scripts.

Death of Ahiram and the First Phoenician Alphabet Inscription

The earliest example of an inscription using the Phoenician Alphabet is on the tomb of the Ahiram, the Phoenician king of Byblos. Having died around the year 1000 BCE King Ahiram was laid to rest in a stone sarcophagus which had, among various ornate carvings, a script written in Phoenician that read:

"Coffin which Ittobaal, son of Ahiram, king of Byblos, made for Ahiram, his father, when he placed him in the 'house of eternity'. Now if a king among kings or a governor among governors or a commander of an army should come up against Byblos and uncovers this coffin, may the sceptre of his rule be torn away, may the throne of his kingdom be overturned, and may peace flee from Byblos! And as for him, if he destroys this inscription, then the…!"

The Greek Alphabet – 800 BCE

Labelled as the direct or indirect ancestor to all modern European alphabets, the Greek alphabet was a descendent of the North Semitic alphabet through the Phoenicians. Early on in its development, the Greek alphabet was modified by dropping several of the existing letters that represented consonants and replaced them with alpha, epsilon, iota, omicron, and upsilon which represented the vowels a, e, i, o, and u. This modification meant that written language could better align with non-Semitic spoken languages. Such was the success of the ancient Greek alphabet a variant of it is still used today.

What are Semitic Languages?

The Semitic languages are an ancient form of language that derive from Sumerian Cuneiform and form the basis for many written languages used around Asia and North Africa including Arabic, Hebrew, and Maltese. Early written Semitic languages include Cuneiform, Babylonian, and Assyrian.

The Latin Alphabet – 700 BCE

Developed from the Greek Alphabet around 100 years prior, the Latin alphabet was used throughout the Ancient Roman Empire and eventually influenced several languages that are used today. Unfortunately, Latin is all but a dead language today, only maintained and understood by a select few who study it.

If you want to learn more about Latin and maybe even try and learn Latin for yourself, check out these easy to follow YouTube guides:

The Rosetta Stone – 196 BCE

Created in 196 BC, the Rosetta Stone was the key to unlocking the secrets of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone is a solid block of granodiorite inscribed with a decree issued by King Ptolemy V Epiphanes during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt. What’s unique about the Rosetta Stone is that it is written in three languages – at the top, the decree is written in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle section is written in Demotic Scripts (a later form of the Egyptian alphabet) and the bottom section is written using the Greek alphabet.

The discovery of this now-famous stone tablet in 1799 by French military officer Pierre-François Bouchard has allowed historians and archeologists to shed light on ancient Egyptians and their undecipherable written language. Discovered near Rosetta on the Nile Delta in Egypt, the Rosetta Stone is now kept at the British Museum.

Invention of Paper – AD 105

It was around the year AD 105 that the invention of what we now recognise today as paper first appeared. It was Ts’ai Lun, a court official in the Chinese Han Dynasty, who first invented the paper-making process that turned rags and other textile waste into paper. Before long, paper grew in popularity and Chinese papermakers began developing specialties by changing the colour of the paper using dyes, and even creating insect-resistant paper to deal with the problem of indigenous bugs eating it.

It's believed that the invention of paper and the rapidly increasing demand for it facilitated growth in the Chinese economy and sped up the development of Chinese civilisation.

Elder Futhark: The First Runic Script – 2nd Century AD

Used by Germanic tribes from the 2nd to the 8th centuries, Elder Futhark is believed to be the oldest runic alphabet on earth. Elder Futhark was often carved onto items like weapons, jewellery, tools, and stones which meant that examples of this written language were able to survive for years, even after the script was forgotten. The Elder Futhark script slowly faded from memory as the Germanic tribes spread out across the European continent and started developing their own unique variations of the Futhark, completely disappearing at some point between AD 701 and AD 800. Luckily, it was rediscovered in 1865 by Norwegian linguist, Sophus Bugge, and was soon deciphered and translated.

During the Migration Period (otherwise known as the Barbarian Invasion) roughly between AD 300 – 700, Elder Futhark found its way northwards into Scandinavia where it was simplified and became known as Younger Futhark, while the Anglo-Saxons and Frisians, of what is now Western Europe, adopted it and extended the script to create the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.

Old English Latin Alphabet – AD 900

Brought in to replace the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc in England, the Old English Latin Alphabet consisted of 24 letters, 20 of which were taken directly from the Latin Alphabet, two were adopted from Anglo-Saxon Futhorc runes, and the last two were also taken from the Latin alphabet but were heavily modification. Introduced at the beginning of the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England, the first example of the Old English Latin Alphabet being used is in a set of Anglo-Saxon law codes written up for King Ætherlbert of Kent. The Old English Latin Alphabet was used in the majority of England until the Norman invasion in the late 11th century.

1066 brought with it a tough old time for King Harold II of England, first a Viking invasion from Norway led by Harald Hardrada which ended with an English victory at the battle of Stamford Bridge, and soon after, the Norman invasion led by William I (William the Conqueror). After the Norman victory at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror was crowned King of England, and soon after he began to introduce the Old French Alphabet into circulation which went on to form the basis for Middle English, completely replacing the Old English Latin Alphabet by the 12th century.

Modern English – Late 15th Century

Eventually, the first examples of the Modern English Alphabet began to appear in the late 15th century with the start of the ‘Great Vowel Shift’ and the fast-growing Renaissance trend of hybridising languages with Latin and Greek words. The introduction of the Modern English script culminated with the King James Bible and the Works of Shakespeare.

Over the years the Modern English Alphabet eventually shaped into what it is today, favouring a more analytical pattern of writing over a free word order pattern as a result of various global influences.

Devanagari – 1200 AD

AD 1200 saw the creation of the Devanagari, an alphabet that now forms the basis for writing in multiple languages including Hindi, Nepali, Pali, Konkani, Bodo, Sindhi, as well as Sanskrit. The Devanagari is currently used for the basis of over 120 languages worldwide mainly around Asia, making it the 4th most widely used writing system in the world. The Devanagari alphabet consists of 48 primary characters including 14 vowels and 34 consonants.

Invention of the Printing Press – AD 1440

Invented by German Goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg, the Printing Press revolutionised written language. All of a sudden people were able to print entire books in next to no time, and for a fraction of the cost. Although Gutenberg wasn’t the first to automate the printing process, with evidence suggesting wooden block printing was used in China as far back as the 9th century, the method by which Gutenberg employed a screw-type wine press to evenly apply pressure when pressing the ink to paper, was the key to developing a consistently high-quality print quickly. This new printing process was also much cheaper and could print on a much larger scale. Now people from every corner of the world could stay connected through the use of bulk printed national newspapers.

Unfortunately, the printing press got off to a bit of a slow start, it took Gutenberg 3 years to complete the first print run which was comprised of 200 Bibles (now referred to as the Gutenberg Bibles), which was a record time considering most books, especially bibles, were handwritten at the time; but what Gutenberg didn’t consider was that very few people in his local area could read. So, because no one wanted to buy his freshly printed bibles locally and with no way of transporting them further afield, Johannes Gutenberg never saw the impact his work made on the world. Johannes Gutenberg died penniless around 30 years later with his printing press impounded by those that had financially backed the project.

Faced with the same problems as Guteberg, many German printers went looking for somewhere to put the new Printing Press into practice. At the time, Venice was a hub of trade and commerce in the Mediterranean, so, seeing their opportunity, professional printers flooded to this utopia with promises of making their fortune out of ink and paper. And, as they predicted, this was where things really took off in the printing business. Because of the constant flow of traffic coming in and out of the Venice docks, printers could build relationships with the captains and use their ships as a way of transporting their freshly printed books to sell them overseas. Hence the adoption of the Printing Press and the well connected docks of Venice proved to be the catalyst to begin pulling Europe out of the Middle Ages and into the Modern Era.

Invention of the Typewriter – 1868

1868 saw the introduction of the modern typewriter. Throughout the years there have been numerous iterations of the typewriter, with some dating all the way back to the 14th century when Italian printmaker, Francesco Rampazetto, invented the 'scrittura tattile' - a machine that allowed him to print letters directly onto paper. Since Rempazetto’s early designs, there have been various other examples of early typewriters like the one developed by Agostino Fantoni to help his blind sister write. It wasn’t until the 1870s, however, that modern typewriters began to be sold and distributed globally by the American firm E. Remington & Sons.

Due to the high production costs and advanced technology of these new typewriters, they were expensive initially only seen as luxury items for the wealthiest of society. Gradually, as the design of the typewriter was improved and the production cost of each unit fell, they began to pop up in homes and businesses at every level of society. Now the true potential of automated writing started to be realised.

Invention of the Computer 1822 – 1945

Arguably the world’s first recorded computer is the Antikythera mechanism, a mechanical device that is believed to have been able to predict astronomical positions decades in advance. Dating back to the 2nd century BC, the Antikythera is known as the first analogue computer but in reality, it’s very different from the computers that we all know today.

For the modern machines we must jump forward to 1834, to witness the conception of the world’s first programmable general-purpose computer. The brainchild of English Mathematician Charles Babbage, the ‘Analytical Engine’, as it was known, was conceived on paper and proposed only as a theory a few years after his calculations were complete. However, the Analytical Engine wasn’t actually constructed until 1991, over 150 years later.

It was in 1941 that the world saw its first built computer. Known as Z3, this new electromechanical general-purpose computer developed by Konrad Zuse, a German civil engineer, was used primarily for aerodynamic calculations during the Second World War, until it was destroyed in a bombing raid only 2 years later in 1943.

In the years following computers would develop, eventually giving us the PC’s, laptops, and mobile devices we have today. It’s this digital revolution that has changed the world of writing, making it more accessible to both consume and create.

After the invention of the computer the world changed, and before long we entered a new age of digital advancement. What this new digital era meant for written language is a step away from the use of paper, and a journey towards a world of digital communication. As newer and smarter computers developed, so did the software to replace pen and paper; things like Microsoft Word, email, and of course, the internet, meant that writing things down on a piece of paper just became redundant.

Digital developments have even changed the way we write, things like emoji’s that exploded onto the social media scene in 1999, have altered the way we communicate with each other, often giving you the ability to replace entire sentences with simple images and icons. You could even say that we have somehow gone back to using similar methods of written communication to the hieroglyphs Ancient Egypt.

So, that brings our quick stop tour of the history of writing to an end. From the cave paintings of prehistoric humans to the return of symbol based text, we have covered it all. If we have missed anything and you think we should add it, let us know!

Since the days of carving humanities first words into a clay block, we have come a long way and its safe to say that there right now there are more unique pieces of writing in the existence than there ever has been. Just take a look around your home and you are sure to find at least a handful of books lying around, maybe now you won't just see them as old books creating clutter but the culmination of thousands years of human ingenuity and development. If you still see them as clutter then you can always sell them on the WeBuyBooks app.

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