Origin and diffusion of writing systems in ancient civilizations

By the fourth millennium BCE, complex cities had developed in Egypt, China, the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. The societies that built them had articulated religious systems and practiced large-scale trade. This encouraged the use of writing to record accounts, goods, calendars and sacred rites.

In Mesopotamia, writing began as signs drawn on moist clay tablets, then dried in the sun to preserve them. Over time, these signs became "cuneiform." Many tablets contain economic records, but there are also literary and religious texts.

In Egypt, hieroglyphs developed, while alphabetic writing, originating in the Sinai and the Levant, spread thanks to the Phoenicians. Alphabets drastically reduced the number of symbols required compared to syllabic or logographic scripts.

The Sumerians were the first to conceive writing. Initially it consisted of pictographic signs (image-like symbols) that were progressively simplified into wedge-shaped signs, incised on clay tablets. From Sumerian cities such as Uruk, writing spread throughout Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Over time, many peoples modified it to adapt it to their own language.

Egyptian hieroglyphs (3200 BCE-400 CE)

The Egyptians developed hieroglyphs toward the end of the fourth millennium BCE. These were figurative symbols representing sounds, syllables and ideas. They were mainly used for sacred and monumental inscriptions. Although they remained undeciphered for centuries, we now know that hieroglyphic writing was a complex system, used in religious and official contexts.

The first alphabets (1500-1050 BCE)

The first alphabets were systems of symbols indicating sounds, particularly consonants. The Proto-Canaanite alphabet, dating to around 1500 BCE, is considered the first example of alphabetic writing. Some scholars suggest it derived from Egyptian hieroglyphic signs. Through the Phoenicians, this system spread widely throughout the Mediterranean.

The Greeks and the Etruscans adapted the Phoenician alphabet to their own languages. The Latin alphabet, derived from the Etruscan one, is the basis of a large part of modern alphabets. In Northern Europe, runic alphabets also developed, probably influenced by Mediterranean models.

In the Old World, writing was invented independently in at least two places: Mesopotamia and China. Egyptian writing and that of the Indus Valley may be separate inventions or derivations from Mesopotamia.

From the late Shang dynasty onward, logographic writing systems developed in China, based on characters representing words or morphemes. During the Han dynasty, standardized forms of writing became established, some of which are still in use today.

South Asia developed several syllabic scripts, all derived from Brahmi. The origins of Brahmi are uncertain: it may be a local invention or influenced by Western alphabets such as Aramaic. The script of the Indus Valley, by contrast, remains undeciphered.

The civilizations of Mesoamerica invented independent writing systems, which did not spread beyond the region. The earliest inscriptions date back to the Olmecs, while the Maya developed a complex system combining logograms and syllabic signs.