The way of life of the first men, in the Paleolithic era, was precarious, since it was nomadic. Around 450,000 BC, prehistoric man, Homo erectus, discovered fire. Then, little by little, Man becomes sedentary thanks, in particular, to the mastery of tools and the development of agriculture and livestock. It is one of the greatest human revolutions, that of the Neolithic, because Homo sapiens finally settles down, socializes and communicates. The hide huts that served as shelter harden and become real dwellings. Crafts are developing, the walls are rising, it is time for the first “urbanizations”.
circa 3400-3300 BC
Procedure
At the heart of the first cities, societies were formed, with an organization, a hierarchy, a political, economic and religious power. Communication intensifies, so writing becomes a necessity. The first writings are born in the Fertile Crescent, more precisely in the country of Sumer (Iraq today) and the city of Uruk around 3400-3300 BC. These first inscriptions are engraved with reeds carved stones called calames on clay tablets. They are of an economic nature and could be similar to account books. We thus observe pictograms, that is to say drawings, which reproduce the object. There are also symbols associated with each object (ideograms). Then, little by little, cuneiform writing, that is to say in the shape of nails or wedges (“cuneus”), came to coexist with these pictograms and ideograms. The first writings are therefore mixed.
Elsewhere, in Egypt, another civilization composed at the same time another writing also made up of different signs (phonetic, symbolic, figurative). These are the hieroglyphs. There seems to have been a Sumerian contribution (from the land of Sumer), but the writing retained its authenticity and favored pictograms, probably because the Egyptians wrote, among other things, on papyrus; the drawings therefore remained visible and easy to carry out. Much earlier than in Sumer, they used their writing for literary, political purposes etc.
In contact with the Egyptians who invaded them around -1500, the Phoenicians, a people of merchants, developed a system with acrophonic signs (which gave the alphabet) by observing hieroglyphs. There are thus 22 letters in the Phoenician alphabet (11th century BC), only consonants, inscribed on wood, skins... This method was very fast and facilitated trade. Then, because of their geographical proximity, the Greeks were inspired by the Phoenician system in the 8 th century, adding vowels...
Consequences
The invention of writing, created by an economic, political, cultural or religious necessity, marks a fundamental advance. From now on, by inscribing his past, Man defines his own history and anchors himself in History. Also, it is not insignificant that historians have chosen this symbolic date to close the door of Prehistory and let Man enter the great History.