Proto-writing consists of visible marks communication limited information.
Paleolithic
In 2022, a team led by amateur archaeologist
Bennett Bacon presented an analysis of lines, dots and "Y"-like symbols on Upper Palaeolithic cave paintings as indicating the mating cycle of animals in a
lunar calendar. The markings found in over 400 caves across Europe were compared to the mating cycles of the animals with which they were associated, showing a correlation with the month of the year in which the animals depicted in the cave paintings would typically give birth. The markings were 20,000 years old, predating attested proto-writing systems by 10,000 years.
Neolithic
Neolithic China
In 2003, turtle shells with
Jiahu symbols were found in 24 Neolithic graves excavated at
Jiahu in the northern Chinese province of
Henan. Using radiocarbon dating, the inscriptions have been dated to the 7th millennium BC. According to some archaeologists, the symbols bear a resemblance to the first attested oracle bone inscriptions dating to .
[.] Others have dismissed this claim as insufficiently substantiated, claiming that simple geometric designs such as those found on the Jiahu shells cannot be linked to early writing.
Neolithic Southeastern Europe
The Vinča symbols (6th–5th millennia BC) are an evolution of simple undeciphered symbols first attested during the 7th millennium BC from Vinča culture. Over time, the symbols gradually became more complex, ultimately culminating in the Tărtăria tablets ().
[Haarmann, Harald: "Geschichte der Schrift", C.H. Beck, 2002, , p. 20] The symbols went out of use around 3500 BC.
They have sometimes been described as an example of proto-writing, with most scholars agreeing that the symbols indicate ownership or other information, but do not record any language.
Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age
During , proto-writing in the
Fertile Crescent was gradually evolving into
cuneiform, the earliest mature writing system.
Mesopotamia
The
Kish tablet () reflects the stage of
proto-cuneiform, when what would become the cuneiform script of
Sumer was still in the proto-writing stage. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, this symbol system had evolved into a method of keeping accounts, using a round-shaped stylus impressed into soft clay at different angles for recording numbers on
and
. This was gradually augmented with
pictographic writing using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted. The transitional stage to a writing system proper takes place in the Jemdet Nasr period ().
Egypt
A similar development took place in the genesis of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Various scholars believe that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after
Sumerian script, and ... probably were ... invented under the influence of the latter ...",
[Geoffrey Sampson, Writing Systems: a Linguistic Introduction, Stanford University Press, 1990, p. 78.] although it is pointed out and held that "the evidence for such direct influence remains flimsy" and that "a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt ..."
[Simson Najovits, Egypt, Trunk of the Tree: A Modern Survey of an Ancient Land, Algora Publishing, 2004, pp. 55–56.]
Bronze Age
During the
Bronze Age, the cultures of the Ancient Near East are known to have had fully developed writing systems, while the marginal territories affected by the Bronze Age, such as Europe, India and China, remained in the stage of proto-writing.
The Chinese script emerged from proto-writing in the Chinese Bronze Age, during about the 14th to 11th centuries BC (Oracle bone script), while symbol systems native to Europe and India are extinct and were replaced by descendants of the Semitic abjad during the Iron Age.
Indian Bronze Age
The
Indus script is a symbol system that emerged during the end of the 4th millennium BC in the Indus Valley Civilisation.
European Bronze Age
With the exception of the Aegean and mainland Greece (
Linear A,
Linear B, Cretan hieroglyphs), the early writing systems of the Near East did not reach Bronze Age Europe. The earliest writing systems of Europe arise in the Iron Age, derived from the Phoenician alphabet.
However, there are number of interpretations regarding symbols found on artefacts of the European Bronze Age which amount to interpreting them as an indigenous tradition of proto-writing. Of special interest in this context are the Bronze Age cultures derived from the Beaker culture in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Interpretations of the markings of the bronze associated with the Urnfield culture, especially the large number of so-called "knob-sickles" discovered in the Frankleben hoard, are discussed by Sommerfeld (1994).[Christoph Sommerfeld, "Die Sichelmarken" in: Gerätegeld Sichel. Studien zur monetären Struktur bronzezeitlicher Horte im nördlichen Mitteleuropa, Vorgeschichtliche Forschungen vol. 19, Berlin/New York, 1994, , pp. 207–264.] Sommerfeld favours an interpretation of these symbols as numerals associated with a lunar calendar.[Sommerfeld (1994:251)]
Later proto-writing
Even after the Bronze Age, several cultures went through a period of using systems of proto-writing as an intermediate stage before the adoption of writing proper. The "Slavic runes" (7th/8th century) mentioned by a few medieval authors may have been such a system. Another example is the system of pictographs invented by
Uyaquk before the development of the
Yugtun script (c. 1900).
African Iron Age
Nsibidi is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern
Nigeria. While there remains no commonly accepted exact date of origin, most researchers agree that use of the earliest symbols date back between the 5th and 15th centuries.
There are thousands of Nsibidi symbols which were used on anything from
to
and to wall designs. Nsibidi is used for the
Ekoid languages and
Igboid languages, and the
Aro people are known to write Nsibidi messages on the bodies of their messengers.
See also
Sources
