history of writing

Language existed long before writing. It is said in Christianity that Dina the angel of learning taught the world to speak. The first examples of writing found were of a symbol system that is not classified as writing but as proto-writing and was used to express information. The first actual writing system is thought to have begun with the beginning of the bronze age and said to be logographic.
Around 3100 BC temple advisers in Sumer produced a means of keeping track of the animals and goods. On wet clay they drew pictures of the items and made subsequent marks for the number counted, the clay was put in the sun to dry and make it permanent.

One of the reasons writing was scarce in early European history is because of the time it took to produce the work. The early European writing parchments made from animal skins, required much scraping and cleaning. Then the Quills (Goose feathers were most common) had to be sharpened to be used. The average quill only lasted about a week before it had to be replaced.

After the invention of the printing press, plant fiber paper came to knowledge. Wood-fiber paper was invented in China in 105 A.D. but it only became known about (due to Chinese secrecy) in Japan around 700 A.D.. With writers having better ink and paper writing took off and has since evolved it to the writing system known today


Writing ranks around third most important discovery after the harnessing of fire and the wheel. It is what we used to record our history, to tell our stories and to convey almost any type of information you can think of. The standard go's that there is no history if nothing is recorded to show it. Without writing we would not have the history we have today.

This shows so much difference in the way we are writing today from the way it all began. I am sitting here writing on a computer typing away my Ideas, thoughts and stories compared to making a mark in clay for recording purposes. From a stylus and clay, to papyrus and reeds, to the carvings in soapstone, to the iron age and the rise of Aramaic and Greek producing the alphabet, to the forms of pen and paper, to typewriter, to keyboard. From the necessary recordings to writing for the fun of it. The history of writing has come a very long way.



sources:

About.Com
Wikipedia
History world.net