Writing

Writing wasn't used until about 3300BC. The first writing was known as picture writing (pictograms). This was because the symbols were similar to the objects they represented. About 200 years later, in 3100BC, cuneiform writing was used. The symbols were wedge-shaped, and this is why cuneiform means "wedge-shaped".

In Crete, the Minoans originally used pictograms, but in around 1650BC, they invented a form of writing which scientists call Linear A. So far, no one has been able to understand what it says. In Greece, Mycenaean scribes used a form of writing known as Linear B.

People originally wrote on stone tablets, but after a while, they started using clay tablets, because it took weeks to carve words onto a stone tablet, and the tablets were very heavy. People used a reed pen to write words on the clay while it was still soft. Then they baked the tablets hard. But these tablets were heavy as well. One day, the Egyptians invented paper. It was made from reeds and called papyrus.

Most of the information we know about the ancient world is from writing. Stone and clay tablets last for a long time, but paper is easily destroyed. Because of this, lots of information has been lost.