Image by Jose Manuel Benito, via Wikimedia Commons
Some people call the written Chinese language ideograms. That is, each symbol, whether abstract or concrete, is structured according to a system that represents a particular idea or concept. This is true for some kanji, but only a few. Most of them are actually logographs, each representing a word or part of a word. But if you dig deep enough into its history, and the history of other Asian languages that use Chinese-derived vocabulary, some of those languages have It turns out that there are hieroglyphics that began long ago, designed in the ancient times.
This doesn’t just apply to Chinese. In fact, all written language appears to have begun as a “textual” form of pictograms, at least judging from the earliest texts currently known to humanity. Looking at the oldest of them all, the limestone “Kish tablets” excavated from the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of the same name in modern-day Iraq, one can see that, in a sense, some of the things contained in that text, can “read” 5 symbols. 500,000 years after it was written. “What is written on its surface is purely emoji,” says the narrator. Short IFLScience video below“and represents a midway point between the original text and the more sophisticated cuneiform script.”
Cuneiform, which we previously covered on Open Culture, was used by the ancient Babylonians to label maps, record stew recipes, and other important tasks. “It was first developed around 3200 B.C. by Sumerian scribes in the ancient city-state of Uruk, in what is now Iraq, as a way to record transactions. It was created by making an indentation in the shape.” say archeology magazine. For more than 3,000 years, this earliest proper script was used in multiple ways to write Akkadian, a Semitic language that was the lingua franca of many languages other than Sumerian at the time, especially the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. Used by cultural scribes.
Cuneiform was also used for writing. Shail Dynasty Tabletdating from the beginning of the second millennium BC. That is, we can read it and know that it is a literary-historical document that enumerates the reigns of various rulers of Sumerian cities. It should be noted that the tablets of the Sha’il dynasty are sometimes referred to as “Kish tablets”, which certainly causes some confusion. But for the anonymous author of the early Kish tablets, who would have lived some 2,000 years ago, the emergence of cuneiform and all the civilizational developments it enabled were far in the future. His emoji text may never be properly deciphered or mapped into any historically documented language, but at least we know he has hands and feet more or less like ours. I know you must have had it.
Related content:
The oldest known alphabetic writing was found on a head lice comb (circa 1700 BC)
How to write in cuneiform, the world’s oldest writing system: A short and engaging introduction
The oldest dictionary of written words – took 90 years to complete and is now free online
How writing spread around the world from 3000 BC to this year: Animated map
40,000-year-old symbols discovered in caves around the world may be the oldest written language
Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages and cultures. His projects include the Substack newsletter books about cities and a book Stateless City: A Stroll Through Los Angeles in the 21st Century. Follow him on Twitter @Colinbemust or facebook.
