Do you want to know how the story originated? We are going to explain in depth many of the studies that are related to this beginning, so keep reading.
The beginning of the story (2/2)
Before we start, I would like to recommend you this other article, in which we also talk about the beginning of the story. Click the link to read more about it.
The beginning of the story (1/2)
If you have been able to read the previous article, you will know that we establish the beginning of history from the emergence of writing under the advance of the Sumerian people. In any case, broadly speaking and to introduce you to this point in the story, what you should know is that writing had a necessary beginning as a measure to adjust social problems that at that time were of vital importance, and with the development and study of this same need to express and record it, the different types of writing that either we know today, or have given rise to the base from which our language and writing start.
Thus, it can be determined that the origin of history and basically the history of writing.
The beginning of the story | Pictograph
Pictographic writing has its origin in the Neolithic, where it is known that some rocks were painted with drawings of animals to tell certain stories, as well as the representation of everyday objects. However, it must be understood that this origin arises from the drawing itself, to later become the writing that will develop over the centuries, until it finds the version we know today (the Phoenician).
Knowing this, we can say that the pictograph had signs that represented a real-life object; This is what is known as pictographic writing. Although it is good to know that those signs were attributed exclusively to what they represented. For example, a specific animal, such as a pig, only reflected that animal and not any other.
They were very schematic drawings, made with the splinter of a cane, and although many were of a naturalistic nature, some already had symbolic connotations, although this one was the main problem of pictographic writing, that it could not represent abstract things.
However, this form of writing had great advantages, and it is that when dealing with representations of reality, pictography could be understood as a primitive but universal form of communication. That is to say, regardless of the language used by the civilization whose hands the rock reached these representations, it could understand without much difficulty what the Sumerians were referring to.
Despite this, in Mesopotamia the strokes that made up the pictographic writing were stylized, and this gave rise to the differentiation between the first writings and the following versions. In other words, it was perfected to reach the next step. Although, even today, this writing is still used, like the signs that we find in any bathroom of any restaurant, museum, airport and other public places.
The beginning of the story | Ideograms and phonograms
From what we know, the Sumerians used some 2,000 pictograms in the early stages of their writing. To simplify some signs that were difficult to draw, simpler and more linear strokes were soon chosen. Also, when you want represent complex ideas or actions, two or more signs began to be used simultaneously, what we call ideograms.
But this ideographic system was still not optimal, it was difficult to write proper names or abstract ideas. To solve the problem, the Sumerians began to use the sound of the signs instead of their mental image: if a scribe needed to record a word that did not have an ideogram, he could, at a given moment, resort to the sign that represented another word of similar sound.
The scribes quickly knew how to take advantage of the enormous possibilities that this system offered and did not take long to perfect it. They found, for example, that combining different signs for their phonetic value it was easy to write any word of the oral language. Thus, the use of ideograms was progressively replaced by that of phonograms.
The signs, from this moment, no longer represented objects but sounds. The adoption of phonographic writing allowed the recording of long oral traditions and legends, giving rise to the birth of literature.. In turn, the ruling classes were the exclusive users of this new technique and did not waste the privilege.
Capable of writing history, rulers soon used it to build a more powerful image of themselves, through epic carvings on monuments and columns. Such was the importance of the records, that by overthrowing a dynasty and imposing a new king, the pharaohs of Egypt ordered the destruction of many of the previously recorded monuments, condemning their predecessors to eternal oblivion and gaining renewed legitimacy.
The beginning of the story | Cuneiform writing
The cuneiform system was based on pictorial symbols on clay tablets. At first the form of writing was by means of stilettos, these represented numbers by means of variable angle signslater pictograms were incorporated, where next to the numerical representation, the concept was represented.
Little by little this system was perfected until reaching the invention of the wedge-shaped stylet with what went from representations by means of angles and variable signs to a cuneiform (wedge) script, a writing system represented by means of logograms, numbers and syllables.
Regarding the orientation of the writing, the signs appeared written in columns from top to bottom in the first documents, starting at the top right of the table. Later, as the writings spread, it was decided to start writing the signs from right to left, as is still done in the Western world.
The curious thing about cuneiform writing is the idea of the storage of “texts”. These were kept in a kind of very well organized library whose objective was to train and instruct future scribes who could continue with this type of writing or technique.
The figure of the scribes is really important and certainly essential in the world of writing, since thanks to them texts could be interpreted and copied that, had they not existed, would have been lost. These people dedicated themselves exclusively to copying these texts which, later on, and thanks to the evolution of history itself, also advanced in their methods and, as happened with the Latin texts, they became copyists.
It is striking to see that this figure has remained throughout history and for a long time, although it is with the appearance of the printing press when it ceases to be necessary. So that, from the beginning of writing to the birth of the printing press, the evolution of scribes and copyists has meant our own evolution.
The beginning of the story | hieroglyphics
The oldest texts dated to date are sumerian texts. The Sumerians was a civilization that inhabited the southern fringe of ancient Mesopotamia. The texts that have come down to our days are based on a system of cuneiform writingprecursor of what would later be the Egyptian hieroglyphics.
But we cannot speak of a developed system until we reach Egyptwith a complex writing system since it is a type of figurative, phonetic and symbolic writingall represented in the same writing or in the same sentence.
This is why it is in Egypt where you can already talk about a first alphabet dated approximately around the year 2000 BC A system based on the use of signs and whose meaning we know thanks to the texts contained in the Rosetta Stone, found in the year 1799, where an Egyptian decree is engraved in stone whose importance lies in the fact that the text is written in hieroglyphic, demotic and greekthanks to which it was possible to know what each sign represented.
The beginning of the story | Alphabet
In contrast to the pictorial, phonographic and figurative systems used by the Egyptians, a new, much simpler writing system appeared that would soon spread throughout the length and breadth of the Mediterranean. A simple system in which each sound could be represented with a single sign, unlike what happened with the ancient Mesopotamian or Egyptian scripts.
The origin of the Phoenicians is located on the edge of the Mediterranean, in current Israel, Syria and Lebanon, hence the closeness and influence with our current writing. The curious thing about this civilization is that the land they had lacked enough nutrients to be considered suitable for developing agriculture. This led them to embark, and also literally, because dove into maritime research and they became the most knowledgeable when it comes to the sea.
Being so close to a large number of important civilizations, could easily develop trade. This, together with their ability to move by sea, gave them a great opportunity to expand throughout the Mediterranean. Being frequent and expert travellers, and having a large number of commercial routes, were able to bring writing to all these civilizations what we discussed
The Phoenician alphabet was made up of ideograms that symbolized animals and objects. As we have already commented at the beginning of the article, we know that this form of writing presented the problem of sounds, so each of these ideograms was assigned a phonetic value in relation to the name that was being represented taking into account its translation in Phoenician.
As it is a simple system, this new form of writing allowed the expansion of the culture general (which originally focused on the Phoenician) and knowledge that the society had been acquiring until now.
It is difficult to visualize the sensation of power and revolution that writing must have provided. It is something so daily for us that its value in the history of humanity is often described as one more episode in a long process of human achievements and advances.
However, make no mistake writing contributed to the history of humanity neither more nor less than history itselfthe ability to know ourselves as the race and culture that we are, and to look back with the certainty of finding answers to our curiosity about our remote past.