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When Was Reading Invented?
A journey through time as well as human history
A couple of millennia ago, in the sands of time, a revolution began: the revolution of reading. This simple task, the behavior of the eyes and the brain recognizing symbols, has changed civilizations, reconstructed cultures, and steered the history of human beings. It’s a curious question, though, one that most people don’t ask: when was reading invented?
In a bid to simplify this question for the purpose of this article, I will through the process of describing how the process of reading has evolved in different eras in the history of mankind. Well, let’s get ready for the intriguing tale of when reading actually was invented, an answer that isn’t short or sweet, it is a story of evolution and revolution.
The first stage of human reading goes back to around 3200 BC in Mesopotamia. On balance, the first simple kinds of reading appeared in the initial stages of civilization, which were cuneiform and hieroglyphics. These are the first crude writing systems, through which information could be written down and documented in the form of ideas, events, or even numbers. Nevertheless, these scripts were phonographic, that is, each symbol represented a complete word or idea. To completely come up with the alphabetic system of reading that we are familiar with today a huge…
