Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Novosibirsk State University –
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Professor of the Department of Source Studies, Literature and Ancient Languages Humanitarian Institute NSU lecturer Oleg Donskikh discussed how humanity evolved from simple drawings and pictograms to the invention of the alphabet and fully developed writing, as well as the impact this had on our civilization. His lecture was part of the popular science marathon "Darwin Week", which is traditionally organized by Novosibirsk State University in February. This year, the event was held for the first time at the venue new campus of NSU.
People learned to draw before they invented the alphabet, but the drawings found in caves where ancient humans were stationed cannot be called writing, although they could have had a certain ritual significance.
"Writing is the term used to describe images that, in one way or another, reflect the language spoken by those who use these signs, and Stone Age rock art does not meet this criterion," explained Professor Donskikh.
Writing emerged somewhat later, independently in four centers: Mesopotamia and Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica. All modern writing systems, of which there are currently between one hundred and four hundred, according to various estimates, trace their roots to one of these centers.
The speaker demonstrated in detail how this process took place using the example of the ancient civilizations of the Middle East and Egypt, taking as a basis the hypothesis of the French-American researcher Denise Schmandt-Besser.
Beginning in the late 19th century, archaeologists explored virtually all of Mesopotamia. They unearthed the ruins of numerous settlements and assembled impressive collections of artifacts. Excavations at sites ranging from eastern Turkey to northern India yielded thousands of clay artifacts of unknown purpose. These were small figurines in the shape of cones, cylinders, and spheres, but their purpose remained a mystery for a long time.
Until the young archaeologist Schmandt-Besserat hypothesized in the 1970s that these were tokens for counting. This method of counting had been known since the Stone Age—the so-called one-to-one correspondence, or bijection. It's very simple: count something by comparing it to something else; for example, to count five sheep, you could use five sticks.
In Mesopotamia, clay objects were used to take this primitive method to an unprecedented level of sophistication. The shape and size of each artifact represented the type and quantity of various goods. In the agrarian economy of that era, such a system helped keep track of livestock and harvested crops. Tokens allowed for the calculation of the total inventory budget, served as a means of storing information about their quantities, and were used to verify the delivery of these goods to their destination.
Around 3100 BCE, Uruk, the ancient Sumerian city-state, experienced a qualitative leap: instead of storing clay tokens themselves in special clay "envelopes" imprinted with the tokens contained within, they began using the imprints themselves on clay tablets. Once this system became widespread and an understanding of what each individual image symbolized became universal, a logical question arose: why store clay tokens at all when it was easier to draw the desired symbol with a reed pen? Thus, the ancient system of three-dimensional counting objects evolved into a system of two-dimensional symbols. Consequently, a demand arose for people skilled in recording and processing information about goods in this manner.
"So writing emerged simultaneously with such a remarkable profession as accountant," Oleg Donskikh emphasized. "And, by the way, the first known recorded name, Kushim, belongs to an accountant."
The plaques contained not only information about the goods themselves, but also the names of those who owned them. They were written as follows: the name was divided into syllables, then each syllable was drawn with a symbol representing an object that sounded similar to it, with a note indicating that the reader was referring not to a collection of objects, but to parts of a name.
A major step in the development of writing occurred during the period when people began to build urban settlements, where social stratification increased significantly. Entire groups of people formed who used pictograms to convey information: merchants (traders), scribes (officials), and priests who recorded sacred texts.
To facilitate communication between large groups of people, a common set of symbols was needed. As symbols became more universal, their simplification followed. At the same time, it became clear that tokens were insufficient to convey all the necessary information. Furthermore, they could only describe objects, but not abstract concepts.
To solve this problem, people followed the same approach as when writing the names of the owners of goods on tally tablets, using symbols for monosyllabic objects, supplied with a determinative (a special sign indicating that the sound, not the meaning, is important here).
“Phoneticization is the main tool that ultimately led to the emergence of writing in the sense that we understand it,” the scientist explained.
Thus was born the famous cuneiform script, now considered one of the world's first writing systems. It was quite complex and was taught in specialized scribe schools. As Oleg Donskikh noted, these schools taught not only writing but also other disciplines and skills required by officials.
The teaching of writing itself was based on specialized canonical texts, which can already be considered literary. But literature proper also emerged, most notably the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered one of humanity's first literary works.
A couple of centuries later, writing emerged in Egypt in a similar fashion (for this reason, many researchers don't consider it a separate center of writing, but rather view it in conjunction with Mesopotamia, which influenced the Egyptians). However, the Egyptians did not copy cuneiform, but created their own system, better known today as hieroglyphs, although for everyday purposes they used the simpler demotic script.
Later civilizations that emerged in the Middle East developed their own writing systems based on these two ancient systems, but they also introduced their own innovations. For example, the Phoenicians were the first to invent an alphabet, which in turn gave rise to the Greek alphabet (still well known today), as well as the Aramaic syllabic script, which was widely used in ancient times. It's worth noting that Aramaic was widely spoken in the Middle East and was the language spoken by Jesus Christ.
Some writing systems evolved and gave rise to new ones, while others, conversely, disappeared. Oleg Donskikh cited the Minoan script of Ancient Crete as an example of the latter.
The Minoan culture was renowned for its complex architecture (just think of the famous palace of Knossos), art, and the creation of exquisite objects. But their most enigmatic achievement was Linear A, which remains undeciphered to this day. All that scholars know about it today is that it is a writing system consisting of approximately 75 symbols, each symbol representing a syllable.
"The fact is that this script wasn't widespread; it was used by the kings of Crete for their own purposes, and it was taught to a very limited circle of people in special schools. And when this civilization collapsed after the volcanic eruption on Santorini, which caused a tsunami and ashfall, and the subsequent Achaean invasion, its writing rules vanished into oblivion, along with their elite speakers," explained Oleg Donskikh.
In the final section of his lecture, Professor Oleg Donskikh cited a quote from Plato, who considered writing not a human achievement, but rather a folly or a vice. "Anyone with intelligence will never dare to express in words what is the fruit of their own reflection, especially in such an inflexible form as written symbols," the famous philosopher said, believing that the texts that emerged in his era destroyed the most valuable aspect of the teacher-student bond and imparted valuable knowledge to the ignorant, who were in no way worthy of it and were incapable of understanding it, only distorting it.
Nevertheless, writing continued to develop and became one of the cornerstones of virtually every civilization. And today, few except specialists know that it all began with inventory control in the settlements of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia, the land of the Near East.
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