History of writing

The history of writing traces the development of expressing language by letters or other marks and also the study and description of these developments.

In the history of how systems of representation of language through graphic means have evolved in different human civilizations, more complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of ideographic or early mnemonic symbols. True writing, in which the content of a linguistic utterance is encoded so that another reader can reconstruct, with a fair degree of accuracy, the exact utterance written down is a later development. It is distinguished from proto-writing which typically avoids encoding grammatical words and affixes, making it more difficult or impossible to reconstruct the exact meaning intended by the writer unless a great deal of context is already known in advance. One of the earliest forms of written expression is cuneiform.

Writing numbers for the purpose of record keeping began long before the writing of language. See History of writing ancient numbers for how the writing of numbers began.

It is generally agreed that true writing of language (not only numbers) was invented independently in at least two places: Mesopotamia (specifically, ancient Sumer) around 3200 BC and Mesoamerica around 900 BC. Several Mesoamerican scripts are known, the oldest being from the Olmec or Zapotec of Mexico.

Historians debate whether writing systems were developed completely independently in Egypt around 3200 BC and in China around 1200 BC, or whether writing appeared in either or both places through a process of cultural diffusion. In other words, was the concept of representing language using writing, though not necessarily the specifics of how such a system worked, passed on by traders or merchants traveling between the two regions?

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