Advent Of Writing

Very often, we take the art of writing for granted. We write with a pen and paper, use an old-fashioned typewriter or type in MS Word on electronic devices. But we rarely stop to think about the evolution of writing, how it began and took its current shape. However, it is essential to ponder the intricacies of language and how it came to be incorporated in the written forms. 

In the human world, the invention of speech was followed by the invention of writing as early as the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was a period in history that spanned from approximately 3300 to 1200 BC and was characterized by an urban civilization with a heavy reliance on bronze metal and the advent of writing. During this period, the Egyptians commonly used papyrus for documenting. The earliest use of papyrus has been traced back to the Egyptians at around 3000 BC. 

Papyrus commonly grew through the Nile Delta, which could explain its proliferation in most Egyptian writings. As time passed, humans began using parchment and later paper through their sheer ingenuity. Precursors of the modern writings were earlier forms of symbolic systems. Proto-types took inspiration from ideographic or early mnemonic symbols that were used to express ideas and objects. After the Bronze Age, there was a growth in the writing systems across different civilisations.

For example, in the Indus civilisation, there was the use of the Indus script, although it remains undeciphered. Among the Chinese, the logogram was commonly used. Meanwhile, cuneiform, considered one of the earliest writing inventions, was invented by the Sumerians during the early Bronze Age, while the ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphs, an early pictorial writing system. Meanwhile, the Olmec script is said to have been common in the Gulf Coast of Mexico. After the Bronze Age came the Iron Age, which saw rapid advancement in the craft of writing, especially the invention of the Phoenician alphabet. The Greeks adapted the Phoenician consonantal letters to create symbols for vowel sounds. The Latin alphabet then became the basis for most of the European writing systems that exist even today.  

Writing is a craft and an inspiring profession, and art in itself. It serves many purposes, whether it is for communication, education, information, connection or entertainment. And it takes many genres such as novels and stories in fiction and essays, memoirs, biography, poems, and so on in non-fiction. And ever since the invention of writing, people have been writing prolifically. In the earliest times, writers used reed pens, dip pens or quill pens that were steeped in ink to jot down words on paper. Then, thanks to Johannes Gutenberg, who invented the printing press in 1440, there was the start of a printing press revolution that thrives even in the present era.  

Writing is a creative process and a complicated one, too, that involves intricate scripts differing throughout the world. Its origin, history, and evolution are bound to make a writer humble, conscientious and grateful. It was our ancestors who paved the foundations of writing, without which writers wouldn’t be where they are today. Thus, the landmark achievements in the history of writing have enabled writers in the current times to express themselves in written forms with much creativity and zest.