Hieroglyphics: A Permanent Mark In History

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As early as 3100 BCE, a detailed writing system appeared which allowed humans to record stories and life events in a permanent descriptive manner. This method, called Hieroglyphics, consisted of a series of simplified picture signs which represent objects, ideas, and eventually sound forms. It surpassed the communicative abilities of primitive art by allowing societies to create clear, precise, and uniquely retrievable records. By minimizing the reliance upon catechesis, or story telling, hieroglyphics has effectively contributed to our historical account of early civilizations and our understanding of how humanity was shaped. The earliest known writing system appears to have been invented by the inhabitants of Uruk, one of the first great Mesopotamian cities. A series of pictographic ...

... simplification edged the system into a more linear form. In fact, most written forms today are rooted in the early hieroglyphic style, although it is fascinating to note that the form seems to have appeared independently in both the Old and New World. In conclusion, one can appreciate the creative momentum which was initiated as the first scribes began carving a series of translatable representations of their environment into wet clay. Essentially, hieroglyphics materialized out of a human need to preserve and accumulate knowledge. As simple societies became complex civilizations, the system was propelled beyond mere ideograms. Phonetic systems were born as symbols acquired sound qualities which were grouped together to form

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