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The Then & Theory team

Writing, more than once

A figure cuts signs into a rock face while a shadowy figure watches. Writing was invented more than once. Scholars recognise at least three systems that arose independently, in Mesopotamia, China and Mesoamerica. The Mesopotamian one is the oldest, with clear evidence from after 3200 BC. One well-known theory traces it to small clay tokens used for keeping accounts, which became pictures drawn on clay, and then, around 3000 BC, a way of writing down spoken language.

Note. The token theory is Denise Schmandt-Besserat’s and not everyone accepts it. Egypt’s hieroglyphs are sometimes counted as a fourth independent invention; scholars disagree.

Sources

1. Britannica, “Where did writing first develop?”