113-665: Bison Licking Insect Bite is a prehistoric carving from the Upper Paleolithic , found at Abri de la Madeleine near Tursac in Dordogne , France , the type-site of the Magdalenian culture, which produced many fine small carvings in antler or bone. Created sometime between 20,000 and 12,000 BP (15,000 BP according to the museum), it was formerly in the Musee des Antiquites Nationales , St. Germain-en-Laye , but has been transferred to
226-494: A degree of artistic expression. Similarly, a zigzag engraving supposedly made with a shark tooth on a freshwater Pseudodon shell DUB1006-fL around 500,000 years ago (i.e. well into the Lower Paleolithic ), associated with Homo erectus , could be the earliest evidence of artistic activity, but the actual intent behind this geometric ornament is not known. There are other claims of Middle Paleolithic sculpture, dubbed
339-516: A general-purpose writing system with logograms, syllables, and numerals. From the 26th century BCE, the system was adapted to write the Akkadian language , and from there to others, such as Hurrian and Hittite . Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian . Geoffrey Sampson states that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and, probably [were], invented under
452-508: A height of up to 6 m (20 ft) and weighs up to 10 tons. They are fitted into sockets that were hewn out of the bedrock . In the second phase, belonging to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), the erected pillars are smaller and stood in rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime . On the smoothed surfaces of the pillars there are reliefs of animals, abstract patterns, and some human figures. By convention, prehistory in
565-635: A language of scholarship. Arabic script was adopted as the primary script of the Persian language and the Old Turkic language . This script also heavily influenced the development of the cursive scripts of Greek, the Slavic languages , Latin , and other languages. The Arabic language also served to spread the Hindu–Arabic numeral system throughout Europe. By the 11th century, the city of Córdoba, Andalusia in what
678-482: A massive stone carved with a complex design of spirals . The mound at nearby Knowth has large flat rocks with rock engravings on their vertical faces all around its circumference, for which various meanings have been suggested, including depictions of the local valley, and the oldest known image of the Moon. Many of these monuments were megalithic tombs, and archaeologists speculate that most have religious significance. Knowth
791-583: A number of Italic scripts derived from the western Greeks. Due to the cultural dominance of the Roman state, the other Old Italic scripts have not survived in any great quantity, and the Etruscan language is mostly lost. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the production and transmission of literature that had previously been widespread across the Roman world became largely confined to
904-478: A previously unknown pre-literate Bronze Age culture whose artefacts included spectacular very large bronze figures (example left), and which appeared culturally very different from the contemporary late Shang, which has always formed part of the account of the continuous tradition of Chinese culture. According to archeological evidence, the Jōmon people in ancient Japan were among the first to develop pottery , dated from
1017-467: A rare survival of what may well have been a very common material for sculpture. It is a plank of larch carved with geometric motifs, but topped with a human head. Now in fragments, it would apparently have been over 5 metres tall when made. In Central Europe , many Neolithic cultures, like Linearbandkeramic , Lengyel and Vinča , produced female (rarely male) and animal statues that can be called art, and elaborate pottery decoration in, for example,
1130-739: A royal burial at Pazyryk , Altay Mountains , which featured – among many other important objects – the most ancient extant pile rug , probably made in Persia. Unusually for prehistoric burials, those in the northern parts of the area may preserve organic materials such as wood and textiles that normally would decay. Steppes people both gave and took influences from neighbouring cultures from Europe to China, and later Scythian pieces are heavily influenced by ancient Greek style, and probably often made by Greeks in Scythia. The Ain Sakhri Lovers from modern Israel ,
1243-685: A site in Tanzania. A site at the Apollo 11 Cave complex in Namibia has been dated to 27,000 years. Göbekli Tepe in Turkey has circles of massive T-shaped stone pillars dating back to the 10th–8th millennium BCE; the world's oldest known megaliths. Many of the pillars are decorated with abstract, enigmatic pictograms and carved animal reliefs. Asia was the cradle for several significant civilizations, most notably those of China and South Asia. The prehistory of eastern Asia
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#17328483201431356-663: A slow decline in importance as the Islamic Golden Age ended. The revival of literacy development in Western Europe led to many innovations in the Latin alphabet and the diversification of the alphabet to codify the phonologies of the various languages. The nature of writing has been constantly evolving, particularly due to the development of new technologies over the centuries. The pen, printing press , computer, and mobile phone are all technological developments which have altered what
1469-541: A time after the reformation, expressed the importance of religion in the control of the state and state bureaucracies. In Europe and its colonies in the Americas, the introduction of the printing press and decreasing cost of paper and printing allowed for greater access of ordinary citizens to gain information about the government and conditions in other regions within the jurisdictions. The Reformation with an emphasis on individual reading of sacred texts, eventually increased
1582-509: Is Enheduanna , who is credited as the author of a number of works of Sumerian literature, including Exaltation of Inanna , in the Sumerian language during the 24th century BCE. The next earliest named author is Ptahhotep , who is credited with authoring The Maxims of Ptahhotep , an instructional book for young men in Egyptian composed in the 23rd century BCE. The Epic of Gilgamesh
1695-457: Is a small Natufian carving in calcite , from about 9,000 BCE. Around the same time, the extraordinary site of Göbekli Tepe in eastern Turkey was begun. During the first phase, belonging to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), circles of massive but neatly shaped T-shaped stone pillars were erected – the world's oldest known megaliths . More than 200 pillars in about 20 circles are currently known through geophysical surveys . Each pillar has
1808-508: Is a widespread phenomenon, much less well known than the cave-paintings of the Upper Paleolithic, with which it makes an interesting contrast. The sites are now mostly cliff faces in the open air, and the subjects are now mostly human rather than animal, with large groups of small figures; there are 45 figures at Roca dels Moros . Clothing is shown, and scenes of dancing, fighting, hunting and food-gathering. The figures are much smaller than
1921-578: Is attested as early as the 7th millennium BCE, with well-known examples including: Other examples of proto-writing include quipu , a system of knotted cords used as mnemonic devices within the Inca Empire (15th century CE). The origins of writing are more generally attributed to the start of the pottery-phase of the Neolithic , when clay tokens were used to record specific amounts of livestock or commodities. These tokens were initially impressed on
2034-590: Is attested only indirectly. The common manuscript materials in Mesopotamia world were the tablet and the roll, the former probably having a Chaldean origin, the latter an Egyptian. The tablets of the Chaldeans are small pieces of clay, somewhat crudely shaped into a form resembling a pillow, and thickly inscribed with cuneiform characters. Similar use has been seen in hollow cylinders, or prisms of six or eight sides, formed of fine terracotta , sometimes glazed, on which
2147-526: Is especially interesting, as the relatively early introduction of writing and historical record-keeping in China has a notable impact on the immediately surrounding cultures and geographic areas. Little of the very rich traditions of the art of Mesopotamia counts as prehistoric, as writing was introduced so early there, but neighbouring cultures such as Urartu , Luristan and Persia had significant and complex artistic traditions. The earliest Indian paintings were
2260-400: Is evidenced by still existing papyrus of the earliest Theban dynasties. As the papyrus, being in great demand, and exported to all parts of the world, became very costly, other materials were often used instead of it, among which is mentioned leather, a few leather mills of an early period having been found in the tombs. Parchment , using sheepskins left after the wool was removed for cloth,
2373-641: Is now southern Spain had become one of the world's foremost intellectual centers, and was the site of the largest library in Europe. By the 14th century, the Renaissance in Europe led to a temporary revival of the importance of Greek, and a slow revival of Latin as a significant literary language . A similar though smaller emergence occurred in Eastern Europe, especially in Russia. At the same time Arabic and Persian began
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#17328483201432486-797: Is reputed to have approximately one third of all megalithic art in Western Europe. In the central Alps, the Camunni made some 350,000 petroglyphs: see Rock Drawings in Valcamonica . History of writing The history of writing traces the development of writing systems and how their use transformed and was transformed by different societies. The use of writing prefigures various social and psychological consequences associated with literacy and literary culture. Each historical invention of writing emerged from systems of proto-writing that used ideographic and mnemonic symbols but were not capable of fully recording spoken language. True writing , where
2599-531: Is written, and the medium through which the written word is produced. The mediums, materials, and technologies used by literate societies for writing help determine how writing systems work, what writing is used for, and what social impact it has. For example, the physical durability of the materials used directly determines what historical examples of writing have survived for later analysis: while bodies of inscriptions in stone, bone, or metal are attested from each ancient literate society, much manuscript culture
2712-714: The Homo sapiens Aurignacian archaeological culture in the Upper Paleolithic. However, there is some evidence that the preference for the aesthetic emerged in the Middle Paleolithic , from 100,000 to 50,000 years ago. Some archaeologists have interpreted certain Middle Paleolithic artifacts as early examples of artistic expression. The symmetry of artifacts, evidence of attention to the detail of tool shape, has led some investigators to conceive of Acheulean hand axes and especially laurel points as having been produced with
2825-486: The 11th millennium BCE . With growing sophistication, the Jōmon created patterns by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks. The earliest examples of Korean art consist of Stone Age works dating from 3000 BCE. These mainly consist of votive sculptures , although petroglyphs have also been recently rediscovered. Rock arts , elaborate stone tools , and potteries were also prevalent. This early period
2938-530: The 7th millennium BCE and represent either humans or mixtures of humans and fish. Simple pottery began to develop in various places, even in the absence of farming. Compared to the preceding Upper Paleolithic and the following Neolithic, there is rather less surviving art from the Mesolithic. The Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin , which probably spreads across from the Upper Paleolithic,
3051-517: The Ancient South Arabian script , which had initially been used to write early Geʽez texts. Most alphabetic writing systems presently in use either descended from Proto-Sinaitic—usually via the Phoenician alphabet —or were directly inspired by its descendants. In Italy, about 500 years separated the early Old Italic scripts from Plautus ( c. 750–250 BCE ), and in the case of
3164-579: The Bronze Age brought additional media available for use in making art, an increase in stylistic diversity, and the creation of objects that did not have any obvious function other than art. It also saw the development in some areas of artisans, a class of people specializing in the production of art, as well as early writing systems . By the Iron Age , civilizations with writing had arisen from Ancient Egypt to Ancient China . Many indigenous peoples from around
3277-530: The Byzantine and Sasanian empires, where the primary literary languages were Greek and Persian respectively—though other languages such as Syriac and Coptic were also important. The spread of Islam in the 7th century brought about the rapid establishment of Arabic as a major literary language in much of the Mediterranean and Central Asia. Arabic and Persian quickly began to overshadow Greek's role as
3390-626: The Germanic peoples , the corresponding time span is again similar, from the first Elder Futhark inscriptions to early texts like the Abrogans ( c. 200–750 CE ). These early abjads remained of marginal importance for several centuries, and it is only towards the end of the Bronze Age that forms of Proto-Sinaitic script split into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet ( c. 1400 BCE ),
3503-743: The Hebrew , Arabic and Syriac abjads—with descendants spread as far as the Mongolian script . The South Arabian alphabet gave rise to the Ge'ez abugida . The history of the Greek alphabet began as early as the 8th century BCE, when the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet for their own use. The letters of the Greek alphabet generally visually correspond to those of the Phoenician alphabet, and both came to be arranged using
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3616-652: The Indonesian island of Borneo , while in 2020 a Megaloceros bone was found in the Harz mountains in Germany, on which specimens of Homo neanderthalensis carved ornaments 51,000 years ago. The oldest undisputed works of figurative art were found in the Schwäbische Alb , Baden-Württemberg , Germany. The earliest of these, the Venus figurine known as the Venus of Hohle Fels and
3729-560: The Jeulmun pottery period , with pottery similar to that found in the adjacent regions of China, decorated with Z-shaped patterns. The earliest Neolithic sites with pottery remains, for example Osan-ri , date to 6000–4500 BCE. This pottery is characterized by comb patterning, with the pot frequently having a pointed base. Ornaments from this time include masks made of shell, with notable finds at Tongsam-dong , Osan-ri, and Sinam-ri. Hand-shaped clay figurines have been found at Nongpo-dong. During
3842-607: The Lion-man figurine , date to some 40,000 years ago. Further depictional art from the Upper Palaeolithic period (broadly 40,000 to 10,000 years ago) includes cave painting (e.g., those at Chauvet , Altamira , Pech Merle , Arcy-sur-Cure and Lascaux ) and portable art : Venus figurines like the Venus of Willendorf , as well as animal carvings like the Swimming Reindeer , Wolverine pendant of Les Eyzies , and several of
3955-625: The Megalithic Temples of Malta . They start in the 5th millennium BC, though some authors speculate on Mesolithic roots. One of the best-known prehistoric sites is Stonehenge , part of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site which contains hundreds of monuments and archaeological sites. Monuments have been found throughout most of Western and Northern Europe, notably at Carnac , France. The large mound tomb at Newgrange , Ireland, dating to around 3200 BC, has its entrance marked with
4068-476: The Mumun pottery period , roughly between 1500 BCE and 300 BCE, agriculture expanded, and evidence of larger-scale political structures became apparent, as villages grew and some burials became more elaborate. Megalithic tombs and dolmens throughout Korea date to this time. The pottery of the time is in a distinctive undecorated style. Many of these changes in style may have occurred due to immigration of new peoples from
4181-684: The Nile River valley, spread as far west as Mali about 10,000 years ago. Noted sites containing early art include Tassili n'Ajjer in southern Algeria, Tadrart Acacus in Libya (A Unesco World Heritage site), and the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad. Rock carvings at the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa have been dated to this age. Contentious dates as far back as 29,000 years have been obtained at
4294-501: The Qin and Han dynasties, which set out a full system of social control and governance, with criminal procedures and accountability for both government officials and citizens. These laws required complex reporting and documenting procedures to facilitate hierarchical supervision from the village up to the imperial center. While common law developed in a mostly oral environment in England after
4407-623: The Yangshao culture and Longshan culture of the Yellow River valley. During China's Bronze Age , Chinese of the ancient Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty produced multitudes of Chinese ritual bronzes , which are elaborate versions of ordinary vessels and other objects used in rituals of ancestor veneration , decorated with taotie motifs and by the late Shang Chinese bronze inscriptions . Discoveries in 1987 in Sanxingdui in central China revealed
4520-582: The Želiesovce and painted Lengyel style. Megalithic (i.e., large stone) monuments are found in the Neolithic Era from Malta to Portugal, through France, and across southern England to most of Wales and Ireland. They are also found in northern Germany and Poland, as well as in Egypt in the Sahara desert (at Nabta Playa and other sites). The best preserved of all temples and the oldest free standing structures are
4633-555: The " Venus of Tan-Tan " (before 300 kya) and the " Venus of Berekhat Ram " (250 kya). In 2002 in Blombos cave , situated in South Africa , stones were discovered engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns, dated to some 70,000 years ago. This suggested to some researchers that early Homo sapiens were capable of abstraction and production of abstract art or symbolic art. Several archaeologists including Richard Klein are hesitant to accept
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4746-476: The 13th century BCE. The earliest attested Chinese writing comprise the body of inscriptions on oracle bones and bronze vessels dating to the Late Shang period ( c. 1200 – c. 1050 BCE ), with the earliest of these dated c. 1250 BCE . Cretan hieroglyphs are found on artifacts of Crete (2nd millennium BCE, MM I to MM III, overlapping with Linear A from MM IIA at
4859-481: The 1st century BCE of a widespread, locally distinctive, bronzeworking culture. The time between 300 BCE and the founding and stabilization of the Three Kingdoms around 300 CE is characterized artistically and archaeologically by increasing trade with China and Japan, something that Chinese histories of the time corroborate. The expansionist Chinese invaded and established commanderies in northern Korea as early as
4972-451: The 1st century BCE; they were driven out by the 4th century CE. The remains of some of these, especially that of Lelang , near modern Pyongyang , have yielded many artifacts in a typical Han style. Chinese histories also record the beginnings of iron works in Korea in the 1st century BCE. Stoneware and kiln -fired pottery also appears to date from this time, although there is controversy over
5085-577: The 3rd century BCE, and writing was in continuous use from the 1st century CE until shortly after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs. The Phoenician alphabet is the continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet into the Iron Age ; it in turn gave rise to the Aramaic and Greek alphabets. To date, most of
5198-508: The Americas Art of Oceania In the history of art , prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of record-keeping, or makes significant contact with another culture that has, and that makes some record of major historical events. At this point ancient art begins, for
5311-489: The Blombos caves as the first example of actual art. In September 2018 the discovery in South Africa of the earliest known drawing by Homo sapiens was announced, which is estimated to be 73,000 years old, much earlier than the 43,000 years old artifacts understood to be the earliest known modern human drawings found previously. The drawing shows a crosshatched pattern made up of nine fine lines. The sudden termination of all of
5424-610: The Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes. Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train as scribes, in the service of temple, royal, and military authorities. The first alphabetic writing was developed by workers in the Sinai Peninsula to write Semitic languages c. 2000 BCE . This script worked by giving Egyptian hieratic letters Semitic sound values. The Geʽez script native to Ethiopia and Eritrea descends from
5537-424: The Egyptian one. However, scholars have noted that the attestation at Abydos is singular and sudden, while the gradual evolution of the Mesopotamian system is lengthy and well-documented, with its predecessor token system used in agriculture and accounting attested as early as 8000 BCE. As there is no evidence of contact between the Chinese Shang dynasty ( c. 1600 – c. 1050 BCE ) and
5650-418: The Mediterranean in eastern Spain and the earliest of the Rock Drawings in Valcamonica in northern Italy, but not in between these areas. Examples of portable art include painted pebbles from the Azilian culture which succeeded the Magdalenian , and patterns on utilitarian objects, like the paddles from Tybrind Vig , Denmark . The Mesolithic statues of Lepenski Vir at the Iron Gate , Serbia date to
5763-421: The Near East is taken to continue until the rise of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE, although writing existed in the region from nearly 2,000 years earlier. On that basis the very rich and long tradition of the art of Mesopotamia , as well as Assyrian sculpture , Hittite art and many other traditions such as the Luristan bronzes all fall under prehistoric art, even if covered with texts extolling
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#17328483201435876-515: The Old Kingdom c. 2150 BCE . The Torah—comprising the first five books of the Hebrew Bible —codified the laws of Ancient Israel. Many other codes were to follow in Greece and Rome, with Roman law to serve as a model for church canon law and secular law throughout much of Europe during later periods. In China, the earliest indications of written codifications of law or books of punishments are inscriptions on bronze vessels in 536 BCE. The earliest extant full set of laws dates back to
5989-444: The Roman period, with the return of the church and the Norman conquest , customary law began to be inscribed as were precedents of the courts; however, many elements remained oral, with documents only memorializing public oaths, wills, land transfers, court judgments, and ceremonies. During the late medieval period, however, documents gained authority for agreements, transactions, and laws. Writing has been central to expanding many of
6102-406: The Upper Paleolithic through to the Mesolithic , cave paintings and portable art such as figurines and beads predominated, with decorative figured workings also seen on some utilitarian objects. In the Neolithic evidence of early pottery appeared, as did sculpture and the construction of megaliths . Early rock art also first appeared during this period. The advent of metalworking in
6215-539: The Upper Paleolithic. Potsherds in a style reminiscent of early Japanese work have been found at Kosan-ri on Jeju island , which, due to lower sea levels at the time, would have been accessible from Japan. The oldest petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Mesolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. The earliest undisputed African rock art dates back about 10,000 years. The first naturalistic paintings of humans found in Africa date back about 8,000 years apparently originating in
6328-406: The aim of producing and disseminating knowledge-bearing texts; the contemporary world identifies such social groups as disciplines and their products as disciplinary literatures. The invention of writing facilitated the sharing, comparing, criticizing, and evaluating of texts, resulting in knowledge becoming a more communal property across wider geographic and temporal domains. Religious texts formed
6441-401: The animals of Paleolithic art, and depicted much more schematically, though often in energetic poses. A few small engraved pendants with suspension holes and simple engraved designs are known, some from northern Europe in amber , and one from Starr Carr in Britain in shale . The rock art in the Urals appears to show similar changes after the Paleolithic, and the wooden Shigir Idol is
6554-412: The arrival of modern humans in Europe. In July 2021, scientists reported the discovery of a bone carving , one of the world's oldest works of art , made by Neanderthals about 51,000 years ago. In November 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the oldest known figurative art painting , over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on
6667-402: The bare idea of writing between cultures. Due to the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing, "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt." During the 1990s, symbols originally inscribed between 3400 and 3200 BCE were discovered at Abydos , which shed some doubt on the previous notion that the Mesopotamian sign system predated
6780-420: The characters were traced with a small stylus, in some specimens so minutely as to require the aid of a magnifying glass. In Egypt the principal writing material was of quite a different sort. Wooden tablets are found pictured on the monuments, while papyrus was also used as early as the 4th millennium BCE. The papyrus reed grew chiefly in Lower Egypt and had various economic means for writing. The pith
6893-409: The common knowledge of scriptural religions, and knowledge of those sacred scriptures became the focus of institutions of religious belief, interpretation, and schooling. Scholars have disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like literature, but the oldest surviving literary texts date from a full millennium after the invention of writing. The earliest literary author known by name
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#17328483201437006-409: The content of linguistic utterances can be accurately reconstructed by later readers, is a later development. As proto-writing is not capable of fully reflecting the grammar and lexicon used in languages, it is often difficult or impossible to deduce what the author intended to communicate. The earliest uses of writing were to document agricultural transactions and contracts in ancient Sumer , but it
7119-412: The core functions of governance through law, regulation, taxation, and documentary surveillance of citizens; all dependent on growth of bureaucracy which elaborates and administers rules and policies and maintains records. These developments which rely on writing increase the power and extent of states. At the same time writing has increased the ability of citizens to become informed about the operations of
7232-408: The culture. Scholars have disagreed concerning when prehistory becomes history and when proto-writing became true writing. Sumerian writing evolved from a system of clay tokens used to represent commodities. By the end of the 4th millennium BCE, this had evolved into a method of keeping accounts, which recorded numbers using a round stylus pressed into the clay at different angles. This system
7345-445: The dates. Pottery of distinctly Japanese origin is found in Korea, and metalwork of Korean origin is found in northeastern China. Superb samples of Steppes art – mostly golden jewellery and trappings for horse – are found over a vast expanses of land stretching from Hungary to Mongolia . Dating from the period between the 7th and 3rd centuries BCE, the objects are usually diminutive, as may be expected from nomadic people always on
7458-434: The discovery of the earliest known drawing by Homo sapiens , which is estimated to be 73,000 years old, much earlier than the 43,000 years old artifacts understood to be the earliest known modern human drawings found previously. Engraved shells created by Homo erectus dating as far back as 500,000 years ago have been found, although experts disagree on whether these engravings can be properly classified as 'art'. From
7571-432: The distribution of shares, and records management . Economic theory itself only began to be developed in the latter eighteenth century through the writings of such theorists as François Quesnay and Adam Smith . Even the concepts of an economy and a national economy were established through their texts and the texts of their colleagues. Since then economics has developed as a field with many authors contributing texts to
7684-471: The earliest true writing systems, both having gradually evolved from proto-writing between 3400 and 3100 BCE. The Proto-Elamite script is also believed to have been in use during this period. Regarding Egyptian hieroglyphs, scholars point to very early differences with Sumerian cuneiform "in structure and style" as to why the two systems "(must) have developed independently," and if any "stimulus diffusion" of writing did occur, it only served to transmit
7797-462: The earliest). Linear B, the writing system of the Mycenaean Greeks , has been deciphered while Linear A has yet to be deciphered. The sequence and the geographical spread of the three overlapping, but distinct, writing systems can be summarized as follows: Of several symbol systems used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica , the Maya script appears to be the best developed, and has been fully deciphered. The earliest inscriptions identifiable as Maya date to
7910-417: The emergence of newspapers with national circulation along with scripted national radio and television news broadcasts also created horizons of attention through the 20th century, with both benefits and costs. Much of what is considered knowledge is inscribed in written text and is the result of communal processes of production, sharing, and evaluation among social groups and institutions bound together with
8023-406: The expanded National Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil that opened in 2004, not far from its findspot. It is a carved and engraved fragment of a spear-thrower made of reindeer antler. It depicts the 10.5 cm figure of a bison , of the now extinct species steppe wisent ( Bison priscus ) with its head turned around and showing its tongue extended. It is thought the spear-thrower
8136-495: The form of governance is. Extensive bureaucracies arose in the ancient Near East and China which relied on a literate class of scribes and bureaucrats. In the Ancient Near East this was carried out through the formation of scribal schools, while in China this led to a series of written imperial examinations based on classic texts which in effect regulated education over millennia. Literacy remained associated with rise in
8249-639: The founding of the Three Kingdoms of Korea , which are documented in the Samguk Sagi , a 12th-century CE text written in Classical Chinese (the written language of the literati in traditional Korea), as beginning in the 1st century BCE; some mention of earlier history is also made in Chinese texts, like the 3rd-century CE Sanguo Zhi . Clearer evidence of culture emerges in the late Neolithic, known in Korea as
8362-509: The government bureaucracy, and printing as it emerged was tightly controlled by the government, with vernacular texts only emerging later and then being limited in their range up through the early twentieth century and the fall of the Ching dynasty. In ancient Greece and Rome, class distinctions of citizen and slave, wealthy and poor limited education and participation. In Medieval and early modern Europe church dominance of education, both before and for
8475-456: The independent development of writing within Egypt. The Abydos glyphs, found in tomb U-J, are written on ivory and are likely labels for other goods found in the grave. While sign usage in Mesopotamian tokens is attested c. 8000 BCE , Egyptian writing appears suddenly in the late 4th millennium BCE. Frank J. Yurco states that depictions of pharaonic iconography such as
8588-454: The influence of the latter", and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia". However, more recent scholars have held that the evidence for direct influence is sparse. During the 1990s, the discovery of glyphs at Abydos dated between 3400 and 3200 BCE has challenged the hypothesis that writing diffused from Mesopotamia to Egypt, pointing instead to
8701-409: The inventory of hieroglyphic symbols derived from "fauna and flora used in the signs [which] are essentially African" and in "regards to writing, we have seen that a purely Nilotic, hence African origin not only is not excluded, but probably reflects the reality", although he acknowledges the geographical location of Egypt made it a receptacle for many influences. Writing was of political importance to
8814-434: The lines on the fragment edges indicate that the pattern originally extended over a larger surface. It is also estimated that the pattern was most likely more complex and structured in its entirety than shown on the discovered area. Initially, when this drawing was found, there was much debate. To prove that this drawing was created by Homo Sapiens, French team members who specialized in chemical analysis of pigments, reproduced
8927-674: The literate civilizations of the Near East, and the methods of logographic and phonetic representation in Chinese characters are distinct from those used in cuneiform and hieroglyphs, written Chinese is considered to be an independent development. During the Early Bronze Age (3300–2100 BCE), the first writing systems evolved from systems of proto-writing , which used ideographic and mnemonic symbols to communicate information, but did not record human language directly. Proto-writing
9040-447: The messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat (the message), the Lord of Kulaba patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay. The emergence of writing in a given area is usually followed by several centuries of fragmentary inscriptions . Historians mark the "historicity" of a culture by the presence of coherent texts written by
9153-592: The move. Art of the steppes is primarily an animal art , i.e., combat scenes involving several animals (real or imaginary) or single animal figures (such as golden stags) predominate. The best known of the various peoples involved are the Scythians , at the European end of the steppe, who were especially likely to bury gold items. Among the most famous finds was made in 1947, when the Soviet archaeologist Sergei Rudenko discovered
9266-436: The north, although this is a subject of debate. At a number of sites in southern Korea there are rock art panels that are thought to date from this period, mainly for stylistic reasons. While the exact date of the introduction of bronzework into Korea is also a matter of debate, it is clear that bronze was being worked by about 700 BCE. Finds include stylistically distinctive daggers, mirrors, and belt buckles, with evidence by
9379-1099: The objects known as bâtons de commandement . Paintings in Pettakere cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are up to 40,000 years old, a similar date to the oldest European cave art, which may suggest an older common origin for this type of art, perhaps in Africa. Monumental open-air art in Europe from this period includes the rock-art at Côa Valley and Mazouco in Portugal, Domingo García and Siega Verde in Spain, and Rocher gravé de Fornols [ fr ] in France. A cave at Turobong in South Korea containing human remains has been found to contain carved deer bones and depictions of deer that may be as much as 40,000 years old. Petroglyphs of deer or reindeer found at Sokchang-ri may also date to
9492-435: The older literate cultures. The end-date for what is covered by the term thus varies greatly between different parts of the world. The earliest human artifacts showing evidence of workmanship with an artistic purpose are the subject of some debate. It is clear that such workmanship existed 40,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic era, although it is quite possible that it began earlier. In September 2018, scientists reported
9605-600: The path of an ox-drawn plough, and was used until the 6th century. Greek is in turn the source for all the modern scripts of Europe. The most widespread descendant of Greek is the Latin script , named for the Latins , a central Italian people who came to dominate Europe with the rise of Rome. Around the 5th century BCE, the Romans adopted writing from the Etruscan civilization , who wrote in
9718-425: The physical properties of the paper itself, while the latter involves using additives to improve strength. According to Denise Schmandt-Besserat , writing had its origins in the counting and cataloguing of agricultural produce, and then economic transactions involving the produce. Government tax rolls followed thereafter. Written documents became essential for the accumulation and accounting of wealth by individuals,
9831-531: The professional literature, and governments collecting data, instituting policies and creating institutions to manage and advance their economies. Deirdre McCloskey has examined the rhetorical strategies and discursive construction of modern economic theory. Graham Smart has examined in depth how the Bank of Canada uses writing to cooperatively produce policies based on economic data and then to communicate strategically with relevant publics. Private legal documents for
9944-659: The rise of capitalism. Paper money (initially appearing in China in the 11th century) and other financial instruments relied on writing, initially in the form of letters and then evolving into specialized genres , to explain the transactions and guarantees (from individuals, banks, or governments) of value inhering in the documents. With the growth of economic activity in late Medieval and Renaissance Europe, sophisticated methods of accounting and calculating value emerged, with such calculations both carried out in writing and explained in manuals. The creation of corporations then proliferated documents surrounding organization, management,
10057-529: The rock paintings of prehistoric times, the petroglyphs as found in places like the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka , and some of them are dated to c. 8,000 BC . The Indus Valley civilization produced fine small stamp seals and sculptures, and may have been literate, but after its collapse there are relatively few artistic remains until the literate period, probably as perishable materials were used. The Gobustan National Park reserve located at
10170-647: The royal crowns, Horus falcons and victory scenes were concentrated in the Upper Egyptian Naqada and A-Group cultures. He further elaborates that "Egyptian writing arose in Naqadan Upper Egypt and A-Group Nubia , and not in the Delta cultures, where the direct Western Asian contact was made, [which] further vitiates the Mesopotamian-influence argument". Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar argues that
10283-524: The ruler, as many Assyrian palace reliefs are. The Art of the Upper Paleolithic includes carvings on antler and bone, especially of animals, as well as the so-called Venus figurines and cave paintings , discussed above. Despite a warmer climate, the Mesolithic period undoubtedly shows a falling-off from the heights of the preceding period. Rock art is found in Scandinavia and northern Russia, and around
10396-497: The sale of land appeared in Mesopotamia in the early 3rd millennium BCE, not long after the initial appearance of cuneiform writing. The first written legal codes followed shortly thereafter c. 2100 BCE with the most well known being the Code of Hammurabi, inscribed on stone stelae throughout Babylon. c. 1750 BCE . While ancient Egypt did not have codified laws, legal decrees and private contracts did appear in
10509-502: The same alphabetical order . Those adapting the Phoenician system added three letters to the end of the series, called the "supplementals". Several varieties of the Greek alphabet developed. One, known as the Cumae alphabet , was used west of Athens and in southern Italy. The other variation, known as Eastern Greek, was used in present-day Turkey and by the Athenians, and eventually the rest of
10622-631: The same lines using a variety of techniques. They concluded that the lines making up the drawing were intentional and were most likely made with ocher. This discovery adds further dimensions to understanding the behavior and cognition of early homo sapiens. Neanderthals may have made art . Painted designs in the caves of La Pasiega ( Cantabria ), a hand stencil in Maltravieso ( Extremadura ), and red-painted speleothems in Ardales ( Andalusia ) are dated to 64,800 years ago, predating by at least 20,000 years
10735-674: The south-east of the Greater Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan, 60 km away from Baku date back more than 12 thousand years ago. The reserve has more than 6,000 rock carvings depicting mostly hunting scenes, human and animal figures. There are also longship illustrations similar to Viking ships . Gobustan is also characterized by its natural musical stone called Gavaldash (tambourine stone). Prehistoric artwork such as painted pottery in Neolithic China can be traced back to
10848-571: The spread of literacy beyond the governing classes and opened the door to wider knowledge and criticism of government actions. Divisions in English society during the 16th century, the English Civil War of the 17th century, and the increased role of parliament that followed, along with the splitting of political religious control were accompanied by pamphlet wars . Newspaper publishing and journalism , having origins in commercial information, soon
10961-476: The state, and religious organizations as well as the transactions of trade, loans, inheritance, and documentation of ownership. With such documentation and accounting larger accumulations of wealth became more possible, along with the power that accompanied wealth, most prominently to the benefit of royalty, the state, and religions. Contracts and loans supported the growth of long-distance international trade with accompanying networks for import and export, supporting
11074-428: The state, to become more organized in expressing needs and concerns, to identify with regions and states, and to form constituencies with particular views and interests; the history of journalism is closely linked to citizen information, regional and national identity, and expression of interests. These changes have greatly influenced the nature of states, increasing the visibility of people and their views no matter what
11187-459: The surface of round clay envelopes and then stored in them. The tokens were then progressively replaced by flat tablets, on which signs were recorded with a stylus. Actual writing is first recorded in Uruk (modern Iraq), at the end of the 4th millennium BCE, and soon after in various parts of the Near East. An ancient Sumerian poem gives the first known story of the invention of writing: Because
11300-423: The symbols used in writing generally correspond to elements of spoken language. In general, systems of symbolic communication like signage, painting, maps, and mathematics are distinguished from writing systems, which require knowledge of an associated spoken language to read a text. The norms of writing generally evolve more slowly than those of speech; as a result, linguistic features are frequently preserved in
11413-629: The undeciphered Byblos syllabary , and the South Arabian alphabet ( c. 1200 BCE ). Proto-Canaanite, which was probably influenced by the Byblos syllabary, in turn inspired the Ugaritic alphabet ( c. 1300 BCE ). Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous script native to western Anatolia , used to record the Hieroglyphic Luwian language. It first appeared on Luwian royal seals from
11526-509: The world continued to produce artistic works distinctive to their geographic area and culture, until exploration and commerce brought record-keeping methods to them. Some cultures, notably the Maya civilization , independently developed writing during the time they flourished, which was then later lost. These cultures may be classified as prehistoric, especially if their writing systems have not been deciphered. The earliest undisputed art originated with
11639-455: The world that spoke Greek adopted this variation. After first writing right to left, like the Phoenicians, the Greeks eventually chose to write from left to right. Occasionally however, the writer would start the next line where the previous line finished, so that the lines would read alternately left to right, then right to left, and so on. This is known as boustrophedon writing, which imitated
11752-475: The writing systems used throughout Afro-Eurasia descend from either Aramaic or Greek. The Greek alphabet was the first to introduce letters representing vowel sounds. It and its descendant in the Latin alphabet gave rise to several European scripts in the first several centuries CE, including the runic , Gothic , and Cyrillic alphabets. The Aramaic alphabet evolved into the Brahmic scripts of India, as well as
11865-405: The written form of a language after they cease to appear in the corresponding spoken language. Before the 20th century, most scholarly theories of the origins of writing involved some form of monogenesis , the assumption that writing had been invented only once as cuneiform in ancient Sumer , and spread across the world from there via cultural diffusion . According to these theories, writing
11978-486: Was broken into roughly its present shape before the carving was made from the fragment, hence the need to show the turned-back head of the animal in order to fit the existing structure. This article relating to archaeology in Europe is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Prehistoric art Art of Central Asia Art of East Asia Art of South Asia Art of Southeast Asia Art of Europe Art of Africa Art of
12091-457: Was followed by the art styles of various Korean kingdoms and dynasties. In these periods, artists often adopted Chinese style in their artworks. However, Koreans not only adopted but also modified Chinese culture with a native preference for simple elegance, purity of nature and spontaneity. This filtering of Chinese styles later influenced Japanese artistic traditions, due to cultural and geographical circumstances. The prehistory of Korea ends with
12204-403: Was gradually augmented with pictographic marks indicating what was being counted, which were made using a sharp stylus. By the 29th century BCE, writing used a wedge-shaped stylus and included phonetic elements representing syllables of the Sumerian language , and gradually replaced round-stylus and sharp-stylus markings during the 27th and 26th centuries BCE. Finally, cuneiform became
12317-424: Was sometimes cheaper than papyrus, which had to be imported outside Egypt. With the invention of wood-pulp paper , the cost of writing material began a steady decline. Wood-pulp paper is still used today, and in recent times efforts have been made to improve bond strength of fibers. Two main areas of examination in this regard have been "dry strength of paper" and "wet web strength". The former involves examination of
12430-490: Was soon used in the areas of finance, religion, government, and law. Writing allowed the spread of these social modalities and their associated knowledge, and ultimately the further centralization of political power. Writing systems typically satisfy three criteria. Firstly, the writing must have some purpose or meaning to it, and a point must be communicated by the text. Secondly, writing systems make use of specific symbols which may be recorded on some writing medium . Thirdly,
12543-816: Was such a particular technology that exposure through activities like trade was a much more likely means of acquisition than independent reinvention. Specifically, many theories were dependent on a literal account of the Book of Genesis , including the emphases it placed on Mesopotamia . Over time, greater awareness of the systems of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica conclusively established that writing had been independently invented multiple times. Four independent inventions of writing are most commonly recognized —in Mesopotamia ( c. 3400–3100 BCE ), Egypt ( c. 3250 BCE ), China (before c. 1250 BCE ), and Mesoamerica (before c. 1 CE ). Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs are considered
12656-413: Was taken out and divided by a pointed instrument into the thin pieces of which it is composed; it was then flattened by pressure, and the strips glued together, other strips being placed at right angles to them, so that a roll of any length might be manufactured. Writing seems to have become more widespread with the invention of papyrus in Egypt. That this material was in use in Egypt from a very early period
12769-513: Was to offer political information and was instrumental to the formation of a public sphere. Newspapers were instrumental in the sharing of information, fostering discussion, and forming political identities in the American Revolution , and then the new nation. The circulation of newspapers also created urban, regional, and state identification in the latter nineteenth century and after. A focus on national news that followed telegraphy and
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