Other Beginnings

Not long after the Sumerians began writing, other systems of writing were beginning to develop all over the world. Civilizations in Africa, Asia, and the Americas were using their indigenous materials to preserve their own records and thoughts.

Over 4,000 years ago along the banks of the Nile River the Egyptians began to write. They used a picture system that is now called hieroglyphics. Most of the surviving writings are religious in nature. They wrote on a material called papyrus, made from the inner fibers of a reed which grew only on the banks of the northern Nile. Papyrus was used as a support for thousands of years by many different cultures.

Arabic Papyrus, Paper and Parchment Collection, 700 C.E
Papyrus 443b
Rare Books, Special Collections,
J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah

There are many examples of early writing systems throughout Asia. China was among the earliest civilizations to begin keeping records with the written word. Like other systems of writing, Chinese was a picture language that became abstracted in both meaning and appearance. The Chinese were also innovative in their writing supports. They were the first to use paper around 3,000 years ago. In other parts of Asia writing took on a different look. In Indonesia and the surrounding islands writing was a series of intricate loops impressed on the palm leaves.

Palm Leaf Book, 450 C.E.
Rare Books, Special Collections,
J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah

Around 3,000 years ago Mesoamericans began developing a writing system. It was first assumed, by modern scholars, that the highly stylized and pictorial images were not a writing system. Later investigation revealed that, similar to other writing systems, Mesoamerican writing was pictorial. Images represented many things in this culture. Mesoamericans used their domestic animal and plant life to create writing supports. They used specially prepared deer skin for more formal writings. They also wrote on a paper like material called Amatl, made from the bark of fig trees. The few remaining manuscripts are generally religious and closely relate to nature, astronomy, and celestial calendars.

Mesoamerican manuscript
Rare Books, Special Collections,
J.Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah

Writing is a worldwide phenomenon that developed in similar yet different ways all over the world. Human beings everywhere found it necessary to produce and preserve human thought and experience through writing and books.

The Beginning

The history of books and writing begins 5,000 years ago when the development of sustained agriculture allowed nomadic tribes to remain in one place. As agriculture grew to support larger and more diverse populations, records became necessary to keep track of resources, experiences and observations.

One of the first agricultural based civilizations was Sumer. Cuneiform, meaning wedge-shaped, is what modern scholars have named the writing system used by the Sumerians. As Sumer grew and the needs of the population became more demanding, pictographic writing symbols became more abstract to accommodate multiple and varied uses. Geography and nature played important roles in writing development.

Societies are shaped by their environment and writing is no different. Sumer was built between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Sumerians used the mud on the banks to make clay tablets as support for their writing. While the clay was soft they would make wedge-shaped impressions with a sharpened stick or stylus. As more people became dependent on writing, speed and accuracy became important. It was easier and faster to make an abstract symbol then a detailed picture.

The Marriott Library has a set of authentic Sumerian clay tablets dating to the second century B.C.E. They were found in the city of ad-Diwaniyah in modern day Iraq. Their size indicates that they are likely to be tax receipts. They were donated as part of the Louis Zucker collection in 1982.

Other records were also kept. The first pharmacopeia was written in Sumer. This list of medicinal herbs is simple and direct with no appeals to magic or superstition.

Pharmacopeia (Facsimile) Donated By Luise S. Goodman, College of Medicine, 1986 Rare Books Division, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah

Not long after a writing system was solidified, multiple uses for writing emerged. Religious text and literature appear early in the historical record. The Epic of Gilgamesh, for instance, tells the story of man’s failures and triumphs. The epic embodies themes that are found in all great literature and still, 4,ooo years later, express the human condition to the modern reader.

Writing has been central to human life, development and expression since its beginning, when mankind first brought thought, material and image together.