The Formation of Writing

A chronology from the primitive symbols to today's alphabet.

Primitive types, 15,000 BC:

Simple pictorial representations, primarily painted on cave walls and pottery.

Sumerian cuneiform writing, 4,000 BC:

The oldest documents found were created by Sumerians. The Sumerians are now considered to be the real inventors of writing.

Egyptian hieroglyphics, 3,000 BC:

These hieroglyphics are an essential basic of our alphabet because this is were signs were abstracted.

Phoenician letters, 1,300 BC:

The Phoenician letters are the foundation for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic characters.

Ancient Greek letters, 600 BC:

The geometrical forms of Ancient Greek characters were the basis for the Roman Capitalis.

Roman Capitalis letters, 300 AD:

Roman Capitalis was carved in stone. The serif of today's fonts originate from it.

Roman uncial letters, 400 AD:

The unicial font made writing with brush and pen much easier.

Carolingian Minuscule, 800 AD:

It was introduced by Charles the Great and was a lower-case letter font.

Roman type letters, 1,500 AD