Editing History of cryptography (section)

== Antiquity ==
[[Image:Skytala&EmptyStrip-Shaded.png|thumb|200px|right|A Scytale, an early device for encryption.]]
The earliest known use of cryptography is found in non-standard [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphs]] carved into the wall of a tomb from the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt]] circa 1900 BC.<ref name="Brief Hist">{{cite web |url=http://www.cypher.com.au/crypto_history.htm |title=A Brief History of Cryptography |publisher=Cypher Research Laboratories |date=24 January 2006 |access-date=18 September 2013}}</ref> These are not thought to be serious attempts at secret communications, however, but rather to have been attempts at mystery, intrigue, or even amusement for literate onlookers.<ref name="Red Hat">{{cite web|url=https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/brief-history-cryptography|title=A Brief History of Cryptography|website=redhat.com|access-date=18 March 2024}}</ref>

Some [[clay tablet]]s from Mesopotamia somewhat later are clearly meant to protect information—one dated near 1500 BC was found to encrypt a craftsman's recipe for pottery glaze, presumably commercially valuable.<ref name="IBM">{{cite web|url=https://www.ibm.com/blog/cryptography-history|title=A brief history of cryptography: Sending secret messages throughout time|website=ibm.com|access-date=18 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="Kahn">Kahn, David.'' The Codebreakers: A Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet, Revised and Updated''. Scribner. New York, New York. 1996.</ref> Furthermore, [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] scholars made use of simple monoalphabetic [[substitution ciphers]] (such as the [[Atbash cipher]]) beginning perhaps around 600 to 500 BC.<ref name="Cryptozine">[http://cryptozine.blogspot.com/2008/05/brief-history-of-cryptography.html "A Brief History of Cryptography." ''Cryptozine.'' 16 May 2008.]</ref><ref name="Cohen">{{cite web|url=http://all.net/edu/curr/ip/Chap2-1.html|title=2.1 - A Short History of Cryptography|website=all.net|access-date=19 March 2018}}</ref>

The Kama Sutra, estimated to have been composed in India between 400 BC to 300 AD,<ref name="google">{{cite book |author=Sengupta, J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V9Y_tQfm_WgC |title=Refractions of Desire, Feminist Perspectives in the Novels of Toni Morrison, Michèle Roberts, and Anita Desai |date=2006 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors |isbn=978-81-269-0629-1 |page=21 |access-date=7 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504150511/https://books.google.com/books?id=V9Y_tQfm_WgC |archive-date=4 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> lists 64 arts recommended for a better quality of life, including a reference to [[Mlecchita vikalpa]], "the art of understanding writing in cypher, and the writing of words in a peculiar way." This was recommended for private communication between lovers.<ref name="translation">{{cite book |last1=Translators: Richard Burton, Bhagavanlal Indrajit, Shivaram Parashuram Bhide |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27827/27827-h/27827-h.htm |title=The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (Translated From The Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks) |date=18 January 2009 |publisher=The Project Gutenberg |access-date=3 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="Kahn2">{{cite book |last1=David Kahn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEH_rHkgaogC |title=The Codebreakers |date=December 1996 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781439103555 |page=74 |access-date=25 November 2015}}</ref> As the Kama Sutra only contains a general reference in a list and not a description, it is unclear what precisely it referred to at the time. Later commentaries on the Kama Sutra offer detailed instructions for substitution ciphers, but these were composed between the tenth and thirteenth centuries AD.<ref name="translation2">{{cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27827/27827-h/27827-h.htm |title=The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (Translated From The Sanscrit In Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks) |date=January 18, 2009 |publisher=The Project Gutenberg |translator-last1=Burton |translator-first1=Richard |translator-last2=Indrajit |translator-first2=Bhagavanlal |translator-last3=Bhide |translator-first3=Shivaram Parashuram |accessdate=3 December 2015}}</ref> Parts of the Egyptian [[Demotic (Egyptian)|demotic]] [[Greek Magical Papyri]] were written in a [[Cryptography|cypher]] script.<ref name="Betz">{{cite book|author=Hans Dieter Betz|url=http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo3684249.html|year=1992|title=The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, Volume 1|publisher=University of Chicago Press }}</ref>

The [[ancient Greeks]] are said to have known of ciphers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/vpns/history-encryption-730|title=History of Encryption|website=SANS}}</ref> The [[scytale]] [[transposition cipher]] was used by the [[Sparta]]n military,<ref name="Cohen" /> but it is not definitively known whether the scytale was for encryption, authentication, or avoiding bad omens in speech.<ref>Kelly, Thomas. "The Myth of the Skytale." Cryptologia 22.3 (1998): 244–260.</ref><ref>Lateiner, D. "Signifying Names and Other Ominous Accidental Utterances in Classical Historiography." Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 45.1 (2010): 35–57. Print.</ref> [[Herodotus]] tells us<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Greeks {{!}} Investigators Guide to Steganography |url=https://flylib.com/books/en/1.496.1.26/1/ |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=flylib.com}}</ref> of secret messages physically concealed beneath wax on wooden tablets or as a tattoo on a slave's head concealed by regrown hair, although these are not properly examples of cryptography ''per se'' as the message, once known, is directly readable; this is known as [[steganography]]. Another Greek method was developed by [[Polybius]] (now called the "[[Polybius#Cryptography|Polybius Square]]").<ref name="Cohen"/> The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] knew something of cryptography (e.g., the [[Caesar cipher]] and its variations).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.icits2015.net/ancient-cryptography-history/|title=The Ancient Cryptography History|last=icitsuser|date=2017-01-22|website=ICITS|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-07|archive-date=4 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804153508/http://www.icits2015.net/ancient-cryptography-history/|url-status=dead}}</ref>