This is attested by the presence of typical Mesopotamian features of various nature. Furthermore, there is evidence for a strong Mesopotamian influence in Egypt in the late fourth millennium B.C. The borrowing was supported by the fact that the Egyptian rebus principle was identical to that of Mesopotamia and therefore seemed to be connected. Because Egypt provides yet no indication of any antecedents to writing, it was logical to assume that phonetic writing leap-frogged from Mesopotamnia to Egypt about 3100 B.C. Thus, Mesopotamia is different from Egypt, where writing seems to appear suddenly, in that an uninterrupted sequence of data in Mesopotamia illustrates how accounting developed, requiring more and more sophisticated devices to deal with larger amounts of data with greater precision. This brought writing to a new course that, in the course of centuries or even millennia, developed into the cuneiform syllabaries (1 sign = 1 syllable) used by the Babylonians and Assyrians.

In order to solve the problem, the accountants resorted to writing individuals' names phonetically.

These personal names could not easily be written logographically without the risk of overburdening the system. Apparently, about 3100 B.C., the Mesopotamian state administration required that the names of the individuals, that either received or gave the goods stipulated, be entered on the accounting tables. The signs were organized using the same order as the previous tokens. The written signs were traced in the shape of tokens, bearing the same markings. Both served strictly for accounting the same types of goods, namely small cattle, cereals, oil, textiles, etc. Tokens and writing had an identical function. When the Mesopotamian script written on clay tablets appeared, coinciding with the rise of the state, about 3200 B.C., it visibly evolved from the token system. Clay counters of many shapes - tokens - were used to count goods in early agricultural communities from 8000 to 3000 B.C. Mesopotamia provides data that illustrates the step by step evolution of data processing from 8000 B.C. These dates challenge the commonly held belief that early logographs, pictographic symbols representing a specific place, object, or quantity, first evolved into more complex phonetic symbols in Mesopotamia.ĭenise Schmandt-Besserat, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, explains as follows the reasons why it is now held that writing spread from Mesopotamia to Egypt. The seal impressions, from various tombs, date even further back, to 3400 B.C. based upon contextual and radiocarbon analysis. Institute director Günter Dreyer says the tags and ink-inscribed pottery vessels have been dated to 3200 B.C.

The tags, each measuring 2 by 1 1/2 centimeters and containing between one and four glyphs, were discovered by excavators from the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo in the predynastic ruler Scorpion I's tomb.

(Courtesy Günter Dreyer) īone and ivory tags, pottery vessels, and clay seal impressions bearing hieroglyphs unearthed at Abydos, 300 miles south of Cairo, have been dated to between 34 B.C., making them the oldest known examples of Egyptian writing. Early writing from Abydos was used to label containers.

Ancient egyp glyph meanings