When did the use of pictographs turn into writing? Let’s discover details about some of the oldest written texts ever found now.
What is True Written Text?
Written text is the representation of verbal communication in written form on an object. There is an understanding of the script by people who speak the same language without someone having to speak it. Language existed for thousands of years before humans began writing information down. While art and expression exist before the development of writing systems, they didn’t directly convey sounds or words in a physical form read by others. The early writing developments were not like modern Indo-European languages. Instead, there was a creation of symbols to represent syllables or words. This resulted in complex symbolic languages that required years of education to use. These types of symbolic communication systems are the first written languages. They originate in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The advantage of an alphabetic writing system is its ease of use in comparison to a more complicated pictorial language. Modern alphabets average around one hundred distinct letters that represent a spoken sound and this allows for the conveyance of all ideas relayed in speech. Symbolic language has several hundred to several thousand symbols requiring memorazation to convey the same ideas. The Canaanite script is the earliest alphabet historians are aware of. Its creation dates around 3,800 years ago and it became the foundation for ancient Greek and Latin. Since it influenced ancient Greek and Latin, it continues to influence almost all modern European languages.
Oldest Confirmed Writing: The Kish Tablet
The Kish tablet is a limestone tablet from Ancient Mesopotamia. The tablet is a product of Sumeria in proto-cuneiform dating to approximately 3500 BCE. It originates from the Uruk Period which ended around the time that the Bronze Age started. While it isn’t a true text, some of the markings show a transition from symbolism to readable cuneiform. The Kish tablet most likely predates the oldest known Egyptian hieroglyphics by a few hundred years. This means that cuneiform is the oldest decipherable writing system developed by humans.
What is Cuneiform?
Cuneiform is the first writing system ever developed. It’s creation in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians dates around 3400 BCE. Cuneiform was a useful means of creating a readable script for a variety of languages. A variety of cultures, including the Assyrians and the Babylonians, find it useful for 3,000 years. Writing involved pushing a reed stylus into a moist clay tablet. The indented wedges form different combinations to stand for different spoken syllables. This allowed for the development of written words and phrases. Because cuneiform was in such wide use, archaeologists have uncovered around 500,000 objects with writing on them. Most of them remain unread.
Oldest Unconfirmed Written Text: The Danube Script
The Danube script may be proto-writing used by the Vinča culture. This was a neolithic culture that spanned parts of Serbia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Romania, Bosnia, North Macedonia, and Greece. This culture honed inherited agricultural skills and different settlements shared rituals, behaviors, and items over long distances. The Danube script has been found on a few objects with the most reliable being the Dispilio tablet. This wooden tablet dates to around 5200 BCE. If it does have a written language on it, it is the oldest written text ever found. There are debates about whether the characters shown are actual language or pictographs. Many scientists believe that the markings are too pictorial and don’t represent language or counting. Some debate that this script belongs to an unidentified Eurasian language and that the Danube script is an undecipherable precursor to a true written system. The Dispilio tablet and the associated Danube script remain unconfirmed. That’s because the removal of the Dispilio tablet from its location of origin caused it damage. Conservation efforts are still underway which has hindered any further study.
First Written Sentence in an Alphabet: It’s On an Ancient Lice Comb
The oldest full sentence using an alphabet was discovered on a louse comb from the Bronze Age. The comb was recently discovered in Israel and it’s believed to date back to 1700 BCE. Archaeologists found the comb at a Canaanite city called Lachish which was part of the kingdom of Judah. The sentence reads, “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.” It’s in the Canaanite script which is the oldest known alphabet on earth. There are seven words in the original language on the comb. The comb appeared to be for hair tangles on one side and lice on the other. This was confirmed when a close inspection of the comb showed that there were still membranes from head lice nymphs on the surface of the broken teeth. The ivory object belongs to someone elite and is incredibly expensive. There were no elephants in the region at the time.
Is Hieroglyphics a Written Text?
Hieroglyphics is text using images of objects, people, and animals to precisely communicate words and concepts. Even though some of the symbols used are recognizable, they have a specific and most likely unrelated meaning associated with a spoken sound or an idea. These symbols work a lot like an alphabet except they’re more visual and complex. Some examples of early hieroglyphics predate recorded history. It’s believed they started as a formal art form that evolved into a text used on temple walls and important tombs. From there, it began being used on papyrus in more common situations until less official scripts developed for mundane tasks. Hieroglyphics died out before the end of Ancient Egypt. At the beginning of the Ptolemaic Dynasty a little after 300 BCE, Greek became the official language in court. That’s because the Ptolemies were Macedonian and they diffused Hellenistic greek ideals. Eventually, Egypt became part of the Roman Empire and paganism was banned. As Egyptian religion disappeared, so did hieroglyphics and the ability to read them. Only with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by Napoleon’s forces was the ability to read hieroglyphics rediscovered.
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Written text is the representation of verbal communication in written form on an object. There is an understanding of the script by people who speak the same language without someone having to speak it. Where was the oldest full sentence using an alphabet found? The oldest full sentence using an alphabet was discovered on a louse comb from the Bronze Age. The comb was recently discovered in Israel and it’s believed to date back to 1700 BCE. Archaeologists found the comb at a Canaanite city called Lachish which was part of the kingdom of Judah.
