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From ancient clay tablets in Mesopotamia to the invention of the modern alphabet, how did humans learn to record their thoughts? Test your knowledge on the evolution of writing!
Clay Novice 0–4 · Scribe in Training 5–8 · Master of the Quill 9–10
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The Rosetta Stone contains a decree written in Ancient Greek and Egyptian (using Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek scripts). Because scholars already knew Greek, this stone became the key to finally cracking the code of Egyptian hieroglyphs in the 19th century.
Photo: Hans Hillewaert, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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A codex is a book constructed of folded sheets bound together, much like modern books. It replaced scrolls because it was easier to navigate, allowed writing on both sides of a page, and could be easily carried and stored.
Photo: Kungl. biblioteket, Wikimedia Commons, Attribution.
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The Phoenician alphabet was an abjad, meaning it only represented consonant sounds. Readers had to fill in the vowels based on context. When the Greeks adapted the script, they added vowels, creating the first true alphabet.
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Oracle bones, usually ox shoulder blades or turtle shells, were used for divination rituals. Priests carved questions onto them, heated them until they cracked, and interpreted the cracks. Over 150,000 such bones have been unearthed.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Sumerians used a reed stylus to press wedge-shaped marks into damp clay tablets, which were then dried or baked. Interestingly, many survived because the libraries they were stored in burned down, accidentally baking and preserving the clay.
Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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King Sejong the Great introduced Hangul in 1443 to replace complex Chinese characters, which were hard for commoners to learn. The alphabet was designed so the shape of the letters mimics the shape of the mouth when pronouncing them.
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The Inca used quipus, which were portable systems of colored, knotted strings. The position and type of knots encoded numerical values and possibly narratives. Some modern researchers believe they functioned as a complex form of writing.
Photo: Claus Ableiter nur hochgeladen aus enWiki, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Sequoyah created a syllabary, where each symbol represents a whole syllable rather than a single consonant or vowel. Remarkably, Sequoyah was illiterate when he started, yet his system led to rapid, widespread literacy among the Cherokee.
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Boustrophedon translates to 'ox-turning', mimicking how an ox plows a field. Lines of text alternate from left-to-right and right-to-left. This made reading continuous text easier because the eye didn't have to jump back to the start of the line.
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Michael Ventris deciphered Linear B, proving it was an early form of Greek written in a syllabic script. Linear A, used by the earlier Minoan civilization on Crete, remains undeciphered to this day despite decades of study.
Photo: Sharon Mollerus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
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