Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC in China and southeastern Europe. They used ideographic or early mnemonic symbols or both to represent a limited number of concepts, in contrast to true writing systems, which record the language of the writer.
Paleolithic
Analysis in 2022, led by Bennet Bacon, an amateur archaeologist, showed that lines, dots and "Y"-like symbols on Upper Palaeolithic cave paintings were used to indicate the mating cycle of animals in a lunar calendar. The markings found in over 400 caves across Europe were compared to the mating cycles of the animals with which they were associated, showing a correlation with the month of the year in which the animals depicted in the cave paintings would typically give birth. The markings were 20,000 years old, predating any other equivalent writing systems by 10,000 years.
Neolithic
Neolithic China
In 2003, turtle shells with carved inscriptions featuring a library of symbols were found in 24 Neolithic graves excavated at Jiahu in the northern Chinese province of Henan. Using radiocarbon dating, the inscriptions have been dated to the 7th millennium BC. According to some archaeologists, the symbols bear a resemblance to the first attested oracle bone inscriptions dating to c. 1200 BC. Others have dismissed this claim as insufficiently substantiated, claiming that simple geometric designs such as those found on the Jiahu shells cannot be linked to early writing.
Neolithic Southeastern Europe
The Vinča symbols (6th–5th millennia BC) are an evolution of simple symbols first attested during the 7th millennium BC). Over time, the symbols gradually became more complex, ultimately culminating in the Tărtăria tablets (c. 5300 BC).
Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age
During c. 3600 – c. 3200 BC, proto-writing in the Fertile Crescent was gradually evolving into cuneiform, the earliest mature writing system.
Mesopotamia
The Kish tablet (c. 3500 BC) reflects the stage of proto-cuneiform, when what would become the cuneiform script of Sumer was still in the proto-writing stage. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, this symbol system had evolved into a method of keeping accounts, using a round-shaped stylus impressed into soft clay at different angles for recording numbers on clay tablets and accounting tokens. This was gradually augmented with pictographic writing using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted. The transitional stage to a writing system proper takes place in the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100 BC – c. 2900 BC).[citation needed]
Egypt
A similar development took place in the genesis of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Various scholars believe that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and ... probably [were] ... invented under the influence of the latter ...", although it is pointed out and held that "the evidence for such direct influence remains flimsy" and that "a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt ..."
Bronze Age
During the Bronze Age, the cultures of the Ancient Near East are known to have had fully developed writing systems, while the marginal territories affected by the Bronze Age, such as Europe, India and China, remained in the stage of proto-writing.[citation needed]
The Chinese script emerged from proto-writing in the Chinese Bronze Age, during about the 14th to 11th centuries BC (Oracle bone script), while symbol systems native to Europe and India are extinct and replaced by descendants of the Semitic abjad during the Iron Age.[citation needed]
Indian Bronze Age
The Indus script is a symbol system that emerged during the end of the 4th millennium BC in the Indus Valley Civilisation.
European Bronze Age
With the exception of the Aegean and mainland Greece (Linear A, Linear B, Cretan hieroglyphs), the early writing systems of the Near East did not reach Bronze Age Europe. The earliest writing systems of Europe arise in the Iron Age, derived from the Phoenician alphabet.
However, there are number of interpretations regarding symbols found on artefacts of the European Bronze Age which amount to interpreting them as an indigenous tradition of proto-writing. Of special interest in this context are the Central European Bronze Age cultures derived from the Beaker culture in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Interpretations of the markings of the bronze sickles associated with the Urnfield culture, especially the large number of so-called "knob-sickles" discovered in the Frankleben hoard, are discussed by Sommerfeld (1994). Sommerfeld favours an interpretation of these symbols as numerals associated with a lunar calendar.[full citation needed]
Later proto-writing
Even after the Bronze Age, several cultures have gone through a period of using systems of proto-writing as an intermediate stage before the adoption of writing proper. The "Slavic runes" (7th/8th century) mentioned by a few medieval authors may have been such a system. Another example is the system of pictographs invented by Uyaquk before the development of the Yugtun syllabary (c. 1900).[citation needed]
African Iron Age
Nsibidi is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria. While there remains no commonly accepted exact date of origin, most researchers agree that use of the earliest symbols date back between the 5th and 15th centuries. There are thousands of Nsibidi symbols which were used on anything from calabashes to tattoos and to wall designs. Nsibidi is used for the Ekoid and Igboid languages, and the Aro people are known to write Nsibidi messages on the bodies of their messengers.
See also
- Asemic writing
- Cylcon
- History of ancient numeral systems
- History of communication
- History of writing
- Message stick
- Megalithic graffiti symbols
- Petroglyph
- Prehistoric counting
- Quipu
- Rongorongo
- Visual language
References
- Robinson, Andrew (2009). Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-19-956778-2.
- Gross, Michael (4 December 2012). "The evolution of writing". Current Biology. 22 (23): R981 – R984. Bibcode:2012CBio...22.R981G. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.11.032. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 23346575.
- "Londoner solves 20,000-year Ice Age drawings mystery". BBC News. 2023-01-05. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
- Bacon, Bennett; Khatiri, Azadeh; Palmer, James; Freeth, Tony; Pettitt, Paul; Kentridge, Robert (5 January 2023). "An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 33 (3): 1–19. doi:10.1017/S0959774322000415. S2CID 255723053.
- Devlin, Hannah (January 5, 2023). "Amateur archaeologist uncovers ice age 'writing' system". The Guardian. France. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
- Helen R. Pilcher 'Earliest handwriting found? Chinese relics hint at Neolithic rituals', Nature (30 April 2003), doi:10.1038/news030428-7 "Symbols carved into tortoise shells more than 8,000 years ago ... unearthed at a mass-burial site at Jiahu in the Henan Province of western China".
- Li, X., Harbottle, G., Zhang, J. & Wang, C. 'The earliest writing? Sign use in the seventh millennium BC at Jiahu, Henan Province, China'. Antiquity, 77, 31–44, (2003).
- "Archaeologists Rewrite History". China Daily. 12 June 2003..
- Houston, Stephen D. (2004). The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process. Cambridge University Press. pp. 245–6. ISBN 978-0-521-83861-0.
- Haarmann, Harald: "Geschichte der Schrift", C.H. Beck, 2002, ISBN 3-406-47998-7, p. 20
- Geoffrey Sampson, Writing Systems: a Linguistic Introduction, Stanford University Press, 1990, p. 78.
- Simson Najovits, Egypt, Trunk of the Tree: A Modern Survey of an Ancient Land, Algora Publishing, 2004, pp. 55–56.
- Christoph Sommerfeld, "Die Sichelmarken" in: Gerätegeld Sichel. Studien zur monetären Struktur bronzezeitlicher Horte im nördlichen Mitteleuropa, Vorgeschichtliche Forschungen vol. 19, Berlin/New York, 1994, ISBN 3-11-012928-0, pp. 207–264.
- Sommerfeld (1994:251)
- Slogar, Christopher (Spring 2007). "Early ceramics from Calabar, Nigeria: Towards a history of Nsibidi". African Arts. 40 (1): 18–29. doi:10.1162/afar.2007.40.1.18. JSTOR 20447809. S2CID 57566625.
- Slogar, Christopher (2005). Iconography and Continuity in West Africa: Calabar Terracottas and the Arts of the Cross River Region of Nigeria/Cameroon (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Maryland. pp. 58–62. hdl:1903/2416.[permanent dead link]
- Gregersen, Edgar A. (1977). Language in Africa: an introductory survey. CRC Press. p. 176. ISBN 0-677-04380-5.
Proto writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic as early as the 7th millennium BC in China and southeastern Europe They used ideographic or early mnemonic symbols or both to represent a limited number of concepts in contrast to true writing systems which record the language of the writer The Kish tablet bearing pictographic symbols that have not been related to any languagePaleolithicAnalysis in 2022 led by Bennet Bacon an amateur archaeologist showed that lines dots and Y like symbols on Upper Palaeolithic cave paintings were used to indicate the mating cycle of animals in a lunar calendar The markings found in over 400 caves across Europe were compared to the mating cycles of the animals with which they were associated showing a correlation with the month of the year in which the animals depicted in the cave paintings would typically give birth The markings were 20 000 years old predating any other equivalent writing systems by 10 000 years NeolithicTurtle plastron from Jiahu inscribed with an eye like symbolNeolithic China In 2003 turtle shells with carved inscriptions featuring a library of symbols were found in 24 Neolithic graves excavated at Jiahu in the northern Chinese province of Henan Using radiocarbon dating the inscriptions have been dated to the 7th millennium BC According to some archaeologists the symbols bear a resemblance to the first attested oracle bone inscriptions dating to c 1200 BC Others have dismissed this claim as insufficiently substantiated claiming that simple geometric designs such as those found on the Jiahu shells cannot be linked to early writing Neolithic Southeastern Europe Clay amulet one of the Tărtăria tablets dated to c 5300 BC The Vinca symbols 6th 5th millennia BC are an evolution of simple symbols first attested during the 7th millennium BC Over time the symbols gradually became more complex ultimately culminating in the Tărtăria tablets c 5300 BC Chalcolithic and Early Bronze AgeDuring c 3600 c 3200 BC proto writing in the Fertile Crescent was gradually evolving into cuneiform the earliest mature writing system Mesopotamia The Kish tablet c 3500 BC reflects the stage of proto cuneiform when what would become the cuneiform script of Sumer was still in the proto writing stage By the end of the 4th millennium BC this symbol system had evolved into a method of keeping accounts using a round shaped stylus impressed into soft clay at different angles for recording numbers on clay tablets and accounting tokens This was gradually augmented with pictographic writing using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted The transitional stage to a writing system proper takes place in the Jemdet Nasr period c 3100 BC c 2900 BC citation needed Egypt A similar development took place in the genesis of the Egyptian hieroglyphs Various scholars believe that Egyptian hieroglyphs came into existence a little after Sumerian script and probably were invented under the influence of the latter although it is pointed out and held that the evidence for such direct influence remains flimsy and that a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt Bronze AgeDuring the Bronze Age the cultures of the Ancient Near East are known to have had fully developed writing systems while the marginal territories affected by the Bronze Age such as Europe India and China remained in the stage of proto writing citation needed The Chinese script emerged from proto writing in the Chinese Bronze Age during about the 14th to 11th centuries BC Oracle bone script while symbol systems native to Europe and India are extinct and replaced by descendants of the Semitic abjad during the Iron Age citation needed Typical Indus script seal impression showing an inscription of five charactersIndian Bronze Age The Indus script is a symbol system that emerged during the end of the 4th millennium BC in the Indus Valley Civilisation European Bronze Age With the exception of the Aegean and mainland Greece Linear A Linear B Cretan hieroglyphs the early writing systems of the Near East did not reach Bronze Age Europe The earliest writing systems of Europe arise in the Iron Age derived from the Phoenician alphabet However there are number of interpretations regarding symbols found on artefacts of the European Bronze Age which amount to interpreting them as an indigenous tradition of proto writing Of special interest in this context are the Central European Bronze Age cultures derived from the Beaker culture in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC Interpretations of the markings of the bronze sickles associated with the Urnfield culture especially the large number of so called knob sickles discovered in the Frankleben hoard are discussed by Sommerfeld 1994 Sommerfeld favours an interpretation of these symbols as numerals associated with a lunar calendar full citation needed Later proto writingEven after the Bronze Age several cultures have gone through a period of using systems of proto writing as an intermediate stage before the adoption of writing proper The Slavic runes 7th 8th century mentioned by a few medieval authors may have been such a system Another example is the system of pictographs invented by Uyaquk before the development of the Yugtun syllabary c 1900 citation needed African Iron Age Nsibidi character for welcome Nsibidi is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria While there remains no commonly accepted exact date of origin most researchers agree that use of the earliest symbols date back between the 5th and 15th centuries There are thousands of Nsibidi symbols which were used on anything from calabashes to tattoos and to wall designs Nsibidi is used for the Ekoid and Igboid languages and the Aro people are known to write Nsibidi messages on the bodies of their messengers See alsoAsemic writing Cylcon History of ancient numeral systems History of communication History of writing Message stick Megalithic graffiti symbols Petroglyph Prehistoric counting Quipu Rongorongo Visual languageReferencesRobinson Andrew 2009 Writing and Script A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press p 4 ISBN 978 0 19 956778 2 Gross Michael 4 December 2012 The evolution of writing Current Biology 22 23 R981 R984 Bibcode 2012CBio 22 R981G doi 10 1016 j cub 2012 11 032 ISSN 0960 9822 PMID 23346575 Londoner solves 20 000 year Ice Age drawings mystery BBC News 2023 01 05 Retrieved 2023 01 05 Bacon Bennett Khatiri Azadeh Palmer James Freeth Tony Pettitt Paul Kentridge Robert 5 January 2023 An Upper Palaeolithic Proto writing System and Phenological Calendar Cambridge Archaeological Journal 33 3 1 19 doi 10 1017 S0959774322000415 S2CID 255723053 Devlin Hannah January 5 2023 Amateur archaeologist uncovers ice age writing system The Guardian France Retrieved March 14 2023 Helen R Pilcher Earliest handwriting found Chinese relics hint at Neolithic rituals Nature 30 April 2003 doi 10 1038 news030428 7 Symbols carved into tortoise shells more than 8 000 years ago unearthed at a mass burial site at Jiahu in the Henan Province of western China Li X Harbottle G Zhang J amp Wang C The earliest writing Sign use in the seventh millennium BC at Jiahu Henan Province China Antiquity 77 31 44 2003 Archaeologists Rewrite History China Daily 12 June 2003 Houston Stephen D 2004 The First Writing Script Invention as History and Process Cambridge University Press pp 245 6 ISBN 978 0 521 83861 0 Haarmann Harald Geschichte der Schrift C H Beck 2002 ISBN 3 406 47998 7 p 20 Geoffrey Sampson Writing Systems a Linguistic Introduction Stanford University Press 1990 p 78 Simson Najovits Egypt Trunk of the Tree A Modern Survey of an Ancient Land Algora Publishing 2004 pp 55 56 Christoph Sommerfeld Die Sichelmarken in Gerategeld Sichel Studien zur monetaren Struktur bronzezeitlicher Horte im nordlichen Mitteleuropa Vorgeschichtliche Forschungen vol 19 Berlin New York 1994 ISBN 3 11 012928 0 pp 207 264 Sommerfeld 1994 251 Slogar Christopher Spring 2007 Early ceramics from Calabar Nigeria Towards a history of Nsibidi African Arts 40 1 18 29 doi 10 1162 afar 2007 40 1 18 JSTOR 20447809 S2CID 57566625 Slogar Christopher 2005 Iconography and Continuity in West Africa Calabar Terracottas and the Arts of the Cross River Region of Nigeria Cameroon PDF PhD thesis University of Maryland pp 58 62 hdl 1903 2416 permanent dead link Gregersen Edgar A 1977 Language in Africa an introductory survey CRC Press p 176 ISBN 0 677 04380 5
