Writing and Civilizations

The invention of writing was a crucial step in the establishment of the world’s great ancient civilizations. At first developed as a form of economic usefulness with pictures representing amounts and what the merchandise was, writing began it’s journey through many transformations into a tool used to maintain a society.

History began when writing was invented. With the eventual ability to write symbols representative of the language, writers and readers where able to intercommunicate and develop long-standing communications. With the unifications of these forms of communications within regions of the world, societies were now capable of becoming bigger and without much differing ideas. With writing becoming a way to establish laws and write them down for the entire society to see, civilizations now possessed a means of control and a means of dictating how the established way of life should be. Ancient egyptians believed that writing your name many times would grant you a never ending life.

As societies became separated by nobility with those in charge being the ones capable of reading and writing, literacy continued to be a major tool used in the governing of the peoples. Alexander the Great considered writing to be such a powerful tool that he built the library at Alexandria where most of the worlds writings were to be kept and studied. People began to understand how important it was to have a recollection of the past so that we may learn from past mistakes and not repeat them.

I believe that the invention of writing is one of the most important things to have aided in the evolution of the human brain. The discovery of fire and the invention of tools was important in the growth of human knowledge but writing, I believe, contained the ability to unite humans in a bigger and more controlled environment. Without the invention of writing I don’t think that any major advances in technology and advancement of species would have occurred as efficiently as it did with the invention of writing. It was crucial for ancient civilizations and it is crucial for modern civilizations.