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.