When was writing invented?
Writing was invented around 3200 BC in Mesopotamia, where the Sumerians developed cuneiform. Egyptian hieroglyphs appeared at about the same time, and writing developed independently in China and Mesoamerica later.
The earliest writing grew out of record-keeping. Sumerians used small clay tokens to track goods like grain and sheep, then began pressing symbols into clay tablets with reed styluses. Over time, these symbols developed into cuneiform, meaning wedge-shaped, which could record language, laws, letters and literature.
Egyptian hieroglyphs combined picture symbols with sound signs. Chinese writing, first known from oracle bone inscriptions around 1250 BC, developed into the characters still used today. In Mesoamerica, the Olmec and later the Maya developed writing systems, with Maya script becoming the most complete.
The alphabet
Around 1800 BC, a simpler system using signs for individual sounds developed in the Sinai and Levant region. It evolved into the Phoenician alphabet, which led to the Greek, Latin and many other alphabets used today, including the one you are reading now.
Did You Know?
The Epic of Gilgamesh, written on clay tablets in Mesopotamia, is one of the earliest surviving great works of literature, about 4,000 years old.