The document discusses the history of writing from early pictographs in cave paintings dated to over 40,000 years ago, to the modern Latin alphabet and computer icons. It describes the evolution of early writing systems including Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the Phoenician alphabet. The document also discusses how Johannes Gutenberg's printing press revolutionized writing by making texts more widely available, and how modern computing has come full circle to utilize pictographic icons akin to early cave paintings.

1. The History of Writing
From Pictograph to Pictograph
By
Mandy Hansen

2. In the beginning, man utilized pictographs
to depict the hunt on cave walls…

3. •Cave drawings and paintings in El Castillo cave in Northern
Spain have been dated to be at least 40,000 years old – dating
to the time of the last Neanderthals and earliest Homo sapiens
•Cave drawings contain the basic elements of writing – graphic
marks made with a tool for the purpose of communication –
and are therefore man’s earliest writing
•Cave paintings contain images important to the survival of
early man – prey, predators, etc.
•Although great effort has gone into the creation of the
images, they are simple and easily recognizable

4. The Sumerians began keeping written records on clay
tablets; meanwhile 850 miles away the Egyptians
created Papyrus.

5. •Sumerian writing developed for record keeping purposes
around 3200 B.C.E.
•Initially consisting of simple pictographs for keeping
track of merchandise like wheat, barley and beer, the
language developed complexity over time
•Eventually the Cuneiform alphabet contained over 600
characters, allowing more complex texts and stories to be
written
•Ultimately the written Sumerian language became too
complicated to be efficient

6. •Shortly after the development of Sumerian writing, the
Egyptians developed hieroglyphic writing
•Hieros means sacred, glyph means engrave
•The hieroglyphic language was formed from a combination of
alphabetic symbols and purely pictographic symbols
•The Egyptian invention of papyrus around 3000 B.C.E. allowed
for the creation of the first portable records and texts

7. •The Phoenicians developed the first non-pictographic alphabet
in which images represented sounds – a phonetic alphabet
•The Greek alphabet, which added vowel sounds, forms the
basis of the modern Latin alphabet used in many languages
around the world
•With a mere 26 characters, the modern Latin alphabet has
allowed for endless variations in written language

8. Reading and writing became available to
the masses with the invention of the
Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press

9. •Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press with movable type,
invented around 1440 C.E., for the first time made the
duplication of written text easy and affordable
•Prior to the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press, hand-
lettered texts could take years to complete
•Other printing techniques with unmovable type were nearly
as labor intensive as hand-lettering
•By the 1800’s, the ease of printing afforded by Gutenberg’s
press had resulted in the creation nearly a million books

10. With the advent of modern computing,
man returned to his pictographic roots

11. •With the development of graphic-based computing in the
early 1970’s came the creation of the first graphic computer
icons
•The first graphic-based PC, the Xerox Star, included many
of the icons we still use today
•As PC usage increased so did the creation of graphic icons
•By the time the internet came in to being, the graphic icon
was part of our computing vernacular
•The creation of a Favicon, or short cut icon, is considered
an integral element of branding for businesses that will
have a web presence
•Although great effort has gone into the creation of these
images, they are simple and easily recognizable
•The pictographic icons of well branded companies
represent things that are important to the survival of the
modern man – social media, shopping, etc.

12. Hmmm….so have we come full circle?

13. Man’s desire to communicate easily and rapidly was the basis of the
creation of writing, whether it be in the form of cave drawings or the
evolution of the modern Latin alphabet. As we have moved into the
technological age, that desire has not diminished – in fact, it would
seem to me, that desire has become more pressing. While the creation
of a web icon is a time consuming task, much like the creation of a cave
painting or a writing system, the end result is a an infinitely
duplicatable image – an image that can represent a commodity or
emotion or an entire virtual network of people.
As we move further down the path of communicating electronically by
means of pictographs we risk complicating communication, just as the
Sumerians did , by creating too many pictographic images for them all
to be easily understood. However, through thoughtful understanding
of communication and writing systems we have built in an advantage
for continued understanding of newly generated web icons, through
years of development we understand that an web icon next to a
company name represents that companies web presence, etc. As such,
I don’t foresee any slowing of new web icon generation.

14. Works Cited
The British Museum Explore. The British Museum. n.d. Web. 15 June 2012.
<http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore >
Epoch Times Sci. “Spanish Cave Art Confirmed as Europe's Oldest.” YouTube. 14
June 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l97UNLwUOgM>
“History of Writing” History World. n.d. Web. 15 June 2012.
<http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab33>
“Know Your Icons Part 1 – A Brief History of Computer Icons.” Psdtuts+. n.d. Web.
15 June 2012. <http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/theory/know-your-icons-part-1-a-
brief-history-of-computer-icons/>
Lo, Lawrence. Ancient Scripts. n.d. Web. 15 June 20, 2012.
<http://www.ancientscripts.com/sumerian.html >
Norman, Jeremy. “From Cave Paintings to the Internet: Chronological and Thematic
Studies on the History of Information and Media.” History of Information. n.d. Web.
15 June 2012. <http://www.historyofinformation.com>
“Table of the Phoenician Alphabet.” Phoenician International Research Center.
n.d. Web. 19 June 2012. <http://phoenicia.org/tblalpha.html >