The Origins of Writing

How did writing start? The first form of writing was called cuneiform and is thought by archaeologists to be used as a way to keep track of supplies in the community It is possible that it dated as far back to 8000 BC.

In the Fertile Crescent land of Sumer, small clay triangles, spheres, cones, and other tokens were molded to represent sheep, measures of grain, jars of oil, and other goods.

Around the same time as Cuneiform the ancient Egyptians began to use a similar writing system called hieroglyphics. Their pictures and symbols represented ideas and words. Egyptians also wrote on clay tablets or carved hieroglyphics on the stone walls of monuments and tombs. They also painted them on a paperlike material called papayrus. This was made from river grasses.

The first real alphabeat was founded in 1000BC by the greeks. The word alphabeat is derived from the first two letters (alpha + beta).

This quickly developed into the Etruscan alphabeat which dates back to around 600 BC.

The latin alphabeat soon followed, which has devolped into the alphabeat we use today however a few variations have been added. 

I found this pretty interesting link which visually shows the development of writing and alphabeats to what it is today today.

http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~rfradkin/latin.html