Editing Writing (section)

== History and origins ==
{{Main|History of writing}}
{{redirect|Writings|the section of the Hebrew Bible|Ketuvim}}

=== Mesopotamia ===
While research into the development of writing during the [[Neolithic]] is ongoing, the current consensus is that it first evolved from economic necessity in the [[ancient Near East]]. Writing most likely began as a consequence of political expansion in ancient cultures, which needed reliable means for transmitting information, maintaining financial accounts, keeping historical records, and similar activities. Around the 4th millennium&nbsp;BC, the complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form.{{sfnp|Robinson|2003|p=36}}

The invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the emergence of civilizations and the beginning of the [[Bronze Age]] during the late 4th millennium&nbsp;BC. [[Cuneiform]] used to write the [[Sumerian language]] and [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of proto-writing systems between 3500 and 2900&nbsp;BC,{{sfnp|Finegan|2019}} with earliest coherent texts from {{circa|2600&nbsp;BC}}. It is generally agreed that Sumerian writing was an independent invention; however, it is debated whether Egyptian writing was developed completely independently of Sumerian, or was a case of [[cultural diffusion]].

[[File:Accountancy clay envelope Louvre Sb1932.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Globular envelope with a cluster of accountancy tokens, Uruk period, from [[Susa]]{{snd}}[[Louvre Museum]]]]
Archaeologist [[Denise Schmandt-Besserat]] presented a theory establishing a link between previously uncategorized clay "tokens", the oldest of which have been found in the Zagros region of Iran, and cuneiform, the first known writing. Around 8000&nbsp;BC, Mesopotamians began using clay tokens to count their agricultural and manufactured goods. Later they began placing these tokens inside large, hollow clay containers (bulla, or globular envelopes) which were then sealed. The quantity of tokens in each container came to be expressed by impressing, on the container's surface, one picture for each instance of the token inside. They next dispensed with the tokens, relying solely on symbols for the tokens, drawn on clay surfaces. To avoid making a picture for each instance of the same object (for example: 100 pictures of a hat to represent 100 hats), they counted the objects by using various small marks.{{sfnp|Woods|Emberling|Teeter|2010|p=15}}

The original [[Mesopotamian]] writing system emerged {{cx|3200&nbsp;BC}} from this method of keeping accounts. By the end of the 4th millennium&nbsp;BC,{{sfnp|Kramer|1981|pp=381–383}} the Mesopotamians were using a triangular-shaped stylus pressed into soft clay to record numbers. This system was gradually augmented with using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted by means of [[pictographs]]. Round and sharp styluses were gradually replaced for writing by wedge-shaped styluses (hence the term ''cuneiform'', from Latin {{lang|la|cunius}} 'wedge'){{snd}}at first only for [[logogram]]s, with phonetic elements introduced by the 29th century&nbsp;BC. Around 2700&nbsp;BC, cuneiform began to represent syllables of spoken Sumerian. About that time, Mesopotamian cuneiform became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and numbers. This script was adapted to another Mesopotamian language, the East Semitic [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ([[Old Assyrian period|Assyrian]] and [[Babylonia]]n) {{cx|2600&nbsp;BC}}, and then to others such as [[Elamite]], [[Hattian language|Hattian]], [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]] and [[Hittite language|Hittite]]. Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for [[Ugaritic]] and [[Old Persian]]. With the adoption of [[Aramaic]] as the lingua franca of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (911–609&nbsp;BC), Old Aramaic was also adapted to Mesopotamian cuneiform. The latest cuneiform texts in Akkadian discovered thus far date from the 1st century&nbsp;AD.{{sfnp|Geller|1997}}

=== Egypt ===
[[File:Narmer Palette serpopard side.jpg|upright=0.8|thumb|[[Narmer Palette]], with the two [[Serpopard]]s representing unification of [[Upper Egypt|Upper]] and [[Lower Egypt]], {{cx|3100&nbsp;BC}}]]
The earliest known [[hieroglyphs]] date to around 5,200 years ago, with attestation including the clay labels of the [[Predynastic Egypt|Predynastic]] ruler "Scorpion I" (Naqada IIIA period, {{cx|33nd century BC}}) recovered at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) in 1998 or the [[Narmer Palette]], dated {{cx|3100 BC}}.{{sfnp|Mattessich|2002}} The hieroglyphic script was [[logographic]] with phonetic adjuncts that included an effective [[Egyptian hieroglyph#Script|alphabet]]. The world's oldest deciphered sentence was found on a seal impression in the tomb of [[Seth-Peribsen]] at Abydos, dating to the Second Dynasty (28th or 27th century&nbsp;BC). Around 800 hieroglyphs were used during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom periods (2686–1077&nbsp;BC); by the Greco-Roman period (30&nbsp;BC{{snd}}642&nbsp;AD), more than 5,000 distinct glyphs are attested.{{sfnp|Loprieno|1995|p=12}}

Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of [[scribe]]s.{{sfnp|Lipson|2004|page=9}} Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train to become scribes, in the service of temple, pharaonic, and military authorities. The hieroglyph system was complex and difficult to master.

Alphabetic writing is only known to have been invented once in human history. Around the mid-19th century&nbsp;BC, the [[Proto-Sinaitic script]] emerged among a community of Canaanite turquoise miners in the [[Sinai Peninsula]].{{sfnp|Goldwasser|2010}} Around 30 crude inscriptions have been found at a mountainous Egyptian mining site known as Serabit el-Khadem, with symbols that stood for single consonant sounds rather than whole words or concepts{{snd}}the basis of an alphabetic system. It was not until between the 12th and 9th centuries that use of the alphabet became widespread.{{sfnp|Goldwasser|2010}}

=== Mesoamerica ===
<!-- fringe The [[Cascajal Block]], a stone slab with 3,000-year-old proto-writing, was discovered in the Mexican state of [[Veracruz]] and is an example of the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere, preceding the oldest [[Zapotec writing]] by approximately 500 years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |author-link=John Noble Wilford |date=15 September 2006 |title=Writing May Be Oldest in Western Hemisphere |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/science/15writing.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727145612/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/science/15writing.html |archive-date=27 July 2018 |access-date=30 March 2008 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Briggs |first=Helen |date=14 September 2006 |title='Oldest' New World writing found |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5347080.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403005953/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5347080.stm |archive-date=3 April 2008 |access-date=30 March 2008 |publisher=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rodríguez Martínez |first=Maria del Carmen |last2=Ceballos |first2=Ponciano Ortíz |last3=Coe |first3=Michael D. |last4=Diehl |first4=Richard A. |last5=Houston |first5=Stephen D. |last6=Taube |first6=Karl A. |last7=Calderón |first7=Alfredo Delgado |date=15 September 2006 |title=Oldest Writing in the New World |journal=Science |volume=313 |issue=5793 |pages=1610–1614 |bibcode=2006Sci...313.1610R |doi=10.1126/science.1131492 |pmid=16973873 |s2cid=35140904}}</ref> It is thought to be [[Olmec]]. -->

Of several [[pre-Columbian]] scripts in [[Mesoamerica]], the one that appears to have been best developed, and the only one to be deciphered, is the [[Maya script]]. The earliest inscription identified as Maya dates to the 3rd century&nbsp;BC.{{sfnp|Saturno|Stuart|Beltrán|2006|pp=1281–1283}} Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing.

=== China ===
{{Further|Oracle bone script|Chinese bronze inscriptions}}
The earliest surviving examples of writing in China{{snd}}inscriptions on [[oracle bone]]s, usually tortoise [[plastron]]s and ox [[scapula]]e which were used for divination{{snd}}date from {{cx|1200 BC}}, during the [[Late Shang]] period. A small number of bronze inscriptions from the same period have also survived.{{sfnp|Boltz|1999|pp=74–123}}

=== Elamite scripts ===
Over the centuries, three distinct Elamite scripts developed. [[Proto-Elamite]] is the oldest known writing system from Iran. In use ({{cx|3200|2900&nbsp;BC}}), clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran, with the majority having been excavated at [[Susa]], an ancient city located east of the [[Tigris]] and between the Karkheh and Dez rivers.{{sfnp|Dahl|2018|pp=383–396}} The Proto-Elamite script is thought to have developed from early [[cuneiform]] (proto-cuneiform). The Proto-Elamite script consists of more than 1,000 signs and is thought to be partly [[logographic]]. The [[Elamite cuneiform]] script was used from {{cx|2500}} to 331&nbsp;BC, and was adapted from the Akkadian cuneiform. At any given point within this period, the Elamite cuneiform script consisted of about 130 symbols, and over this entire period only 206 total signs were used. This is far fewer than most other cuneiform scripts.{{sfnp|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=56}}

=== Europe ===
==== Crete and Greece ====
[[Cretan hieroglyphs]] are attested on artefacts from [[Crete]] during the early-to-mid 2nd millennium&nbsp;BC (MM I–III, overlapping with Linear A from MM IIA at the earliest). [[Linear B]], the writing system of the [[Mycenaean Greeks]],{{sfnp|Olivier|1986|pp=377–389}} has been deciphered while [[Linear A]] has yet to be deciphered. The sequence and the geographical spread of the three overlapping, but distinct writing systems can be summarized as follows (beginning date refers to first attestations, the assumed origins of all scripts lie further back in the past): Cretan hieroglyphs were used in Crete {{cx|1625–1500 BC}}; Linear A was used in the [[Aegean Islands]], and the [[Greek mainland]] {{cx|1700–1450 BC}}; Linear B was used in Crete ([[Knossos]]), and the mainland {{cx|1375–1200&nbsp;BC}}.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

=== Development of the alphabet ===
{{Main|History of the alphabet}}
The [[Proto-Sinaitic]] script, in which [[Proto-Canaanite]] is believed to have been first written, is attested as early as the 19th century&nbsp;BC. The [[Phoenician alphabet]] was adapted from the Proto-Canaanite script sometime before the 14th century&nbsp;BC, which in turn borrowed principles of representing phonetic information from [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]. This writing system was an odd sort of syllabary in which only consonants are represented. This script was adapted by the [[Greek alphabet|Greeks]], who adapted certain consonantal signs to represent their vowels. The [[Cumae alphabet]], a variant of the early Greek alphabet, gave rise to the [[Etruscan alphabet]] and its own descendants, such as the [[Latin alphabet]] and [[rune]]s. Other descendants from the [[Greek alphabet]] include [[Cyrillic]], used to write [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Serbian language|Serbian]], among others. The Phoenician system was also adapted into the [[Aramaic script]], from which the [[Hebrew script|Hebrew]] and the [[Arabic script]]s are descended.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

=== Religious texts ===
{{See also|Myth}}
In the history of writing, [[religious texts]] or writing have played a special role. For example, some religious text compilations have been some of the earliest popular texts,<!--, introduced societal rules {{see above|[[#Governance and law|above]]}},--> or even the only written texts in some languages, and in some cases are still highly popular around the world.{{sfnp|Martin|1994}}{{page needed|date=June 2023}}{{sfnp|Johnston|2007|p=133}}{{sfnp|Powell|2009|p=12}}