A journey through the history of writing

The end of the semester is upon me. I have a stack of paper exams with handwritten responses waiting for me to evaluate. I like to listen to podcasts while commuting, and I listened to an interesting episode of The Rest is History called The World’s First City on my way home from class the other day. In this episode, the hosts discuss the ancient city of Uruk in modern day Iraq. They describe what is believed to be the first example of writing as well as the first named person in writing. As I was walking, I got to thinking about how amazing this history is. And how wonderful it is that I get to work with learners as they build their communication skills. And how all of this might be connected. What are the throughlines from ancient writing in Uruk and my business English exams in Germany today?

A couple things to keep in mind

I’m not a writing studies academic or professional or a historian, so these thoughts might be naïve or obvious. But, as an English instructor, I’m really interested in the history of writing, where we come from, what we’re all doing here trying to communicate in English. I’m also sitting in these thoughts while discourse around AI and writing rages around me. Grading student writing is more than just marking errors. It’s engaging with an old technology and complex mixture of purpose, context, time, and interpretation. In this post, I’ll muse about the history of writing and how it might be connected to my work in the business English classroom. And just a heads up that I’ll be using a mix of sources for this overview. Some sources are definitely more credible than others, but I think the information is still valid.

Tldr; I’m putting off grading exams to explore the history of writing.

A brief history of writing

What is a writing system?

Before we dig into the history of writing, I think it’s valuable to define what we mean by writing or a writing system. According to the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2001), writing systems are means of graphically recording language. There are three basic types: (a) logographic systems which consist of non phonetic symbols, called logograms, which represent entire words; (b) syllabic; and (c) segmental writing systems which comprise phonetic symbols representing syllable-units and individual sounds, respectively. A writing system includes one of these scripts as well as the rules for how the script represents the language being written.

The first writing systems

Based on what people know today, writing first appears in southern Mesopotamia, in Uruk, around the 4th Millennium BC (4000 BC to 3001 BC). Written language in Egypt is then recorded a bit later. Both the Sumerian and Egyptian writing systems are partially logographic and partially phonetic. The Sumerian system is called cuneiform, and the Egyptian system is referred to as hieroglyphs. A little bit later, historically speaking, Chinese characters began appearing around 1200 BC in China. And across the globe, writing systems in Mesoamerica, like the Maya script, began popping up around 300 BC. All of these systems are thought to have developed independently without evidence of contact among the cultures.

If you’re interested in learning more about this, check out this Duolingo article about the evolution of written scripts.

Historical writing systems include Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform, Chinese characters, and scripts from Mesoamerica.

Proto-writing systems

Prior to these writing systems, though, “writing emerged from systems of proto-writing, though historically most proto-writing systems did not produce writing systems. Proto-writing uses ideographic and mnemonic symbols to communicate, but lacks the capability to fully encode language.” (Writing System, Wikipedia).

With each invention or transition from proto-writing to writing systems, ideographs (images representing ideas) were decoupled from the meaning and assigned to represent an aspect of a language. Through this process, abstract ideas and concepts without concrete visualizations could be represented and communicated in writing.

The first alphabetic system

As you’re reading this, you’re using an alphabetic system to decipher the meaning I’m trying to communicate to you. Each letter of the alphabet represents a sound in the language. With English, each letter sometimes represents multiple sounds, but you get what I’m saying.

The first alphabetic system is thought to be the Proto-Sinaitic script (between 1850 BC and 1550 BC). Those who have studied this script believe it is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs, and it is the parent to most modern alphabetic scripts including the Phoenician and South Arabian alphabets.

Evolution from Proto-Sinaitic to Phoenician to Latin alphabets.

Why writing?

Okay. Imagine that you’re living in Southern Mesopotamia in Uruk around 3500 BC. You live in the world’s first real city. And life is becoming more complex than it was for your nomadic ancestors. People are living in a larger group and taking on specialized roles within their community. Some people are in construction building temples, others are responsible for managing government administrative tasks, and others work in agriculture. If you are in agriculture, you need to keep track of crop cycles and surplus of food, for instance. And through these necessities, cuneiform is developed. “One of the earliest written texts from Uruk provides a list of 120 officials including the leader of the city, leader of the law, leader of the plow, and leader of the lambs, as well as specialist terms for priests, metalworkers, potters, and others.” (MET Museum).

First writing examples

The earliest examples of writing largely serve to keep records. Much of the writing was really practical. People needed to communicate about business, culture, and law. And these things were often shared on clay tablets or cylinders. I think this point is particularly interesting because it would be really difficult to find artifacts made of more ethereal materials (paper, other biodegradable materials, etc). According to the MET Museum, “Clay became the preferred medium for recording bureaucratic items as it was abundant, cheap, and durable in comparison to other mediums. Initially, a reed or stick was used to draw pictographs and abstract signs into moistened clay.”

Anyway, literacy and writing began with accounting, not poetry and literature, as many might assume. According to the The Rest is History podcast episode I mentioned previously, around the 4th millennium BC, we see a receipt or log of goods along with the word “Kushim.” This word is thought to be the first recorded instance of a person’s name (or the title of a job or office). So the first person named in history is basically on a receipt for barley.

The cuneiform clay tablet with “Kushim” from Uruk.

After this, the next time people are named in writing are on a record of ownership. According to National Geographic, “Dated to around 3100 B.C.—about a generation or two after Kushim—the tablet’s heading is, ‘Two slaves held by Gal-Sal.’ Gal-Sal is the owner. Next come the slaves, ‘En-pap X and Sukkalgir.’”

Gal-Sal and his slaves En-pap X and Sukkalgir.

What does the earliest writing say about society?

So way back in Kushim’s time, people were keeping records of trade and sales. And they were keeping records of ownership. They were doing business. Which was really the impetus for this blog post in the first place. The history of writing from ancient Sumeria to my business English class in Germany in 2025 is connected by the things we choose to write about. For better or worse, we aren’t writing about literature or poetry or culture so much, but business and trade and ownership.

I don’t know what I’m trying to say here exactly, but the accountants and administrators in my business English classroom today might have more in common with Kushim and people writing the first clay tablets in Uruk than we recognize.

Final thoughts

Here are a few takeaways from this exploration of the history of writing:

Writing is a tool. It helps people communicate and complete tasks like keeping track of goods and sales.
Writing is a process. People communicated before writing systems were developed. And writing systems evolved over time to suit our communication needs. This process of evolution takes time, and the conventions used to communicate changed over that time.
Business writing is old. Like, really old. And through this type of communication, people were able to accomplish specialized tasks in an urban environment.

I was surprised by how interesting this all was to discover, and I think I could probably spend a long time digging into the history of writing around the world. But, my business English exams await. I am a part of the long history of business writing, and I hope to support my learners as they take their places among the accountants, administrators, and business people of history. I hope the writing skills they practice in our class serve them well whether they are writing emails, quarterly reports, or receipts on clay tablets.

English by Crystal