Beginning of Written Language

“Below the pictured hieroglyphics in the first line is the same text in a simpler writing known as hieratic. The two systems, however, were not distinct; they were as identical as our own printed and written characters. The third line illustrates old Babylonian cuneiform, in which the characters, like the hieroglyphics, are rude and broken down pictures of objects. Derived from them is the later cuneiform shown in lines four and five."—Webster, 1913

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