4 ~ A History of Handwriting, from String Onwards

1. Early Neolithic folk take to tying knots in string to remind them of things. Not really handwriting.

2. 412,000 BC. A community of Homo Erectus living at Bilzingsleben in modern Germany leave notches on bone. Not really handwriting.

3. 8000 BC. The Azilian culture in southern France take to painting squiggles, stripes and spots on pebbles. Nobody knows what they meant, if anything, if not a slightly tragic wish by a prehistoric Terence Conran to brighten up the cave. Not really handwriting.

4. 5300 BC. The Vinca culture in the Balkans incise symbols on clay. Two hundred and ten symbols are recorded. They appear to be related to the possession of objects. Not really handwriting.

5. Depressing realization sets in. Writing was invented not by human beings but by accountants. Most of the early writing systems are records of how much crap people own, how much money they have, how much money they owe, and other lowering/boastful facts of human life.

6. The accountants invent writing systems in Yangshao in China around 4000 BC, and various Middle Eastern sites between 8000 and 1500 BC.

7. Sumerians around 3700 BC start to stick one-syllable symbols together to form words, first by joining pictorial symbols together so that ‘eye plus water meant weeping.’1 Still not handwriting.

8. Egyptians invent hieroglyphs. System now includes 26 one-consonant signs. The principle of the consonant alphabet widely accepted by 2000 BC. Not much like handwriting.

9. Over the next 4,000 years, Egyptians develop four scripts: hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic and Coptic. Hieratic is developed by accountants, written on papyrus and other surfaces, taking on links between letters and other simplifications. Suddenly, it looks a lot like handwriting. All of a sudden, people start writing proper literature in it. Response of accountants to this not recorded. Possibly start going round handing round clay-tablet business cards to newly affluent poets.

10. In Mesopotamia, wedge-shaped tools applied to clay produce a form of writing called cuneiform. Scribes are trained at special schools, performing exercises in writing over and over. Very much like handwriting lessons.

11. The development of alphabets results in a Phoenician alphabet with twenty-two consonants around 1000 BC. Other writing systems quickly follow, including Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and others which have not survived. All of these demonstrate the personal ability to write letters, as well as incised or engraved forms. From this point on, it’s all handwriting.