TRI DUC ENGLISH - Origins of Writing TRI DUC ENGLISH Reading Practice: Origins of Writing Ancient civilizations attributed the origins of writing to the gods. For the ancient Egyptians, their god Thoth was the creator of writing and, in some stories, also the creator of speech. The ancient Sumerians and Assyrians also believed that writing originated with certain gods, as did the ancient Maya. In Chinese mythology, the creation of writing is attributed to an ancient sage and was used for communication with the gods. Clearly, writing was highly valued even by ancient peoples. Humans began painting pictures on cave walls 25,000 years ago or more, but writing systems did not develop until groups of people began settling in farming communities. Scholars say that writing systems developed independently in at least three different parts of the world: Mesopotamia, China, and Mesoamerica. The oldest known writing system developed among the ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C. Along with the rise of agricultural societies came the development of property ownership and the need to keep records of it. In early agricultural societies, property consisted largely of land, livestock such as cattle, and grain. Originally, clay tokens of various shapes were used to count these possessions. From this developed a system of impressing the shapes onto clay tablets. One of the earliest clay tablets of this type was found in excavations in Mesopotamia and dates from the time of the Sumerian culture. Scribes then began using reeds instead of tokens to mark the clay, developing a system of wedge-like shapes to represent the tokens. This system of writing using wedge shapes is known as cuneiform. It was later adopted by other cultures and became the basis for other writing systems. Originating in a system that used pictures to represent objects, cuneiform writing eventually developed into systems that used symbols to represent the sounds of language. The oldest form of Chinese writing dates from around 1500 B.C. It is called oracle bone script because it was carved on animal bones and shells that were used for predicting the future. At a later period, Chinese writing appeared on bronze vases and later still developed into a system that was used to record government affairs. The Chinese writing system was also the original basis for both the Japanese and Korean writing systems. In Mesoame...