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                        1492                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                75°
                        the spread of the world’s major 
                        writing systems to 1492                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Runic inscription 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              from Sweden, early                                                                     Arctic Circle
                        The adoption of writing marks the end of a society’s                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  11th century ad.
                        prehistory. Writing has been invented independently many 
                        times during world history and is a natural expression of 
                        the human capacity for abstract and symbolic thought.                                                                                                 Roman inscription from the emperor 
                        Writing was a response to growing social and economic                                                                                                Trajan’s reign in the Latin alphabet.
                        complexity and as such it is often considered one of the                                                                                                                                                                                         Ogam
                        defining characteristics of civilization.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Runic
                            The earliest known writing system was the Sumerian                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Mongol
                        pictographic script which developed c. 3400 bc. In the 
                        3rd millennium the pictographs were gradually refined                                                                                                                                                                                                                Etruscan                                                                                                                                                                                       45°
                        and simplified, developing into the cuneiform script.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Latin    Cyrillic                    Proto-Canaanite alphabet                                    Chinese pictographic
                        The Sumerian scripts were adopted widely. Sumerian                                                                                                                                                                                                                       alphabet           Luvian              Phoenician-Canaanite alphabet                                Chinese logographic
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  hieroglyphic                                                                                           Korean
                        pictographic was adopted by the Elamites and perhaps                                                                                                                                                                                                            Mycenaean Linear B                                  Sumerian pictographic                                                        alphabet   Japanese
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Greek alphabet                   Aramaic                                                                                                 script
                        inspired the Indus valley pictographic script. Cuneiform                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Minoan                                           Indus
                        was adopted by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Elamites                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   hieroglyphic                  Cuneiform            Valley
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Egyptian                  Elamite              script          Tibetan
                        Hittites and Persians among others.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     hieroglyphic Nabataean    pictographic
                            Despite its superficial similarity, the Egyptian                                                                                                 Olmec                                                                                                                                             Kufic                                      Brahmic
                        hieroglyphic script, which developed c. 3100 bc, was                                                                                               Epi-Olmec                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Tropic of Cancer
                        probably invented independently of Sumerian pictographic.                                                                                   Mixtec                                   Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription                                                                                                                                                                                 Chinese cursive 
                        Its influence was limited to Nubia, Minoan Crete and the                                                                                                                            from the 4th century bc.                                                                                                                                                                                          script, used from 
                                                                                                                                                              Zapotec          Maya                                                                                                                                                Sabaean                                                                                    Han dynasty times 
                        Hittite empire. Mesoamerican writing was also based on                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Ethiopic                                                                                            for writing informal 
                        hieroglyphs, though only the Maya script could represent                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              documents quickly.
                        all aspects of spoken language. The earliest Chinese                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  A Sanskrit text written in 
                        writing, which appeared c. 1200 bc was a pictographic                                    Maya hieroglyphs in a page from                                                                                                                                                                                             the Indian Brahmic script.
                        script. Continually refined, this developed in the first                                the 11th- or 12th-century ad  
                                                                                                                Dresden Codex.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Equator
                        millennium bc into a logographic script which is directly 
                        ancestral to the modern Chinese script. The only script 
                        to develop in the Pacific region, the undeciphered 18th-
                        century Rongorongo script of Easter Island, was also based 
                        on pictographs.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 3000 Bc                   2000 Bc                    1000 Bc                   aD 1                       1000
                            The hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts have thousands                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         THE AMERICAS                                                                       Zapotec hieroglyphic
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Mixtec
                        of characters and are difficult to learn. This limited literacy                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Olmec                          Epi-Olmec
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Maya hieroglyphic
                        to a small elite of professional scribes. In the 16th century                                                                                                                                                                              Sumerian cuneiform                                                     EAST ASIA                                                                                                     Japanese
                        bc, the Canaanites invented the much simpler alphabet                                                                                                                                                                                     script on a clay tablet.                                                                                                      Chinese pictographic       Chinese logographic
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Korean alphabet
                        with only 22 characters representing consonants. All                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              SOUTH AND                                                                                                           Southeast Asian scripts
                                                                                                                                                                               Peruvian quipu, used for                                                                                                                                   CENTRAL ASIA                                                                                                                   Mongol
                        modern alphabets, except possibly the Korean, ultimately                                                                                              encoding information in                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Tibetan
                        derive from the Canaanite alphabet. Western alphabets                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Indus Valley pictographic                    Brahmic                                                 Modern Indian scripts
                                                                                                                                                                              knotted coloured strings.                                                                                                                                   MIDDLE EAST                                                               Aramaic
                        include characters for vowels as well as consonants, a                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Nabataean                               Kufic Arabic
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Sabaean
                        refinement introduced by the ancient Greeks.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Elamite pictographic             Proto-Canaanite alphabet  Phoenician
                                                                                                          Spread of writing by:                                                                                                                                                                                                            Sumerian pictographic              Cuneiform
                            Of major civilizations, only the Andean did not develop                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Luvian hieroglyphic
                        a system of writing. In this region information was encoded                                3000 BC                                 500 BC                                                                                                                                                                         AFRICA                                                                                                              Ethiopic
                        in knots on devices made from coloured strings known as                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Egyptian hieroglyphic                                                                                                            45°
                                                                                                                   2000                                                                                                                                                                                                                   EUROPE                                      Minoan Linear A               Greek
                                                                                                                        BC                                 AD
                        quipus. The earliest evidence for the use of quipus, from                                                                              500                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Cyrillic
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Minoan hieroglyphic Mycenaean Linear B             Etruscan                                  Runic
                        Caral in Peru, dates to around 3000 bc.                                                    1250 BC                                 AD 1492                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Latin
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