Next time you sit down and read a book, thank the accountants of all time.
Current evidence suggests that humans have had the capacity for spoken language for at least 130,000 years. Always prone to procrastination, we only invented written language around 3200-3500 BC
The first known writing is cuneiform: wedge-shaped characters pressed into clay tablets and used record transactions quite monotonous — an inauspicious beginning for an invention that would later transform our species.
“Mesopotamian cuneiform writing can be traced back to prehistoryto a counting system from the eighth millennium BC, which used clay tokens in various ways”, explains Denise Schmandt-Besseratprofessor of Art and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and expert on the origins of writing, in a 2014 publication on the university’s website.
“Writing was used exclusively for accounting until the third millennium BC, when the Sumerian concern with life after death paved the way for literature, through the use of writing in funerary inscriptions”, details the professor.
Cuneiform writing itself is thought to have evolved from the use of tokens. In archaeological sites dating back to 8000-3000 BC, tokens of various shapes and sizes have been found, used by ancient people to represent different goods and control sales.
This was a significant step in human historya: represent goods through tokens that were understood over a vast area of the Middle Eastwhere multiple languages were spoken, notes the .
Over time, this need to record transactions led humans to be able to express your language in writingrecord more complex information and transmit it to subsequent generations, and create all literary works.
Before the 20th century, it was thought that written language must have shared a common origin and spread around the world through trade, when others recognized how extremely useful it was. But that perspective has changed somewhat with subsequent discoveries and analyses.
Written language is thought to have been independently invented maybe even four times in human history. It is believed to have appeared in the form of hieroglyphics around 3200 BC, in China around 1300-1200 BC, and in Mayan civilizations around 300-900 AD.
Then, How did we come up with this over and over again?
Linguists suggest that when civilizations reach a certain level of complexityrequire some form of representationto control trade, food and materials.
For example, although there is still some debate about whether the ancient Egyptians could have been influenced by Mesopotamia, the earliest examples of hieroglyphs we have founds were probably tags to indicate quantities of goods.
O oldest example of writing we have from Chinahowever, it was a little more interesting. Writing is found on “oracular bones”. These are ox bones and turtle shells, used during the Late Shang period in ancient China for the purposes of divination.
However, We don’t know how long I existedaa written in China at that time, and we have no evidence to say exactly how it came about.
When we have written communication, even in the form of receiptswe realized how useful is it to record our thoughts, feelings and facts, far beyond who owes who how many cows. These early languages evolved to record narratives for the first time, and gave us insight into ancient lives.
In other words, the next time you are reading a great work, take a moment to thank the accountants.
