Long before those rules were invented, symbols representing basic concepts ... cylinder seals they analyzed originated before writing emerged in ancient Mesopotamia, through to the proto-literate ...

The ancient Egyptians invented one of the earliest known writing systems used from around 3000 BC. The symbols they used were called hieroglyphs, which comes from a Greek word meaning ...

A series of Maya hieroglyphs may look like just so many pretty pictures or symbols to you ... You can both read the ancient Maya (transcribed using the Roman alphabet) and hear it spoken (by ...

At Tell Umm-el Marra, finger-length clay cylinders, unearthed by Johns Hopkins University archaeologists, show engraved symbols—possibly the earliest alphabetic writing—found at this ancient ...