Development of Script

Here is the history of the development of the script. There are three periods of time when scripts of the world developed and expanded. They are:

(1) Script of ancient time
(2) Script of ancestors
(3) Scripts of vowels and consonants

(1) Script of Ancient Time
The duration of the script of ancient times is around 4,500 years, between 8,000 BC to 3,500 BC. Different and various kinds of symbolic pictures have been used in this time. Some varieties are given below.

a. Inscribed script
b. Script of cliff and caves
c. Script of Tap or Mutual Script

a. Inscribed Script
This script has been found in mud pots, pots, woodcarvings and in stones. Various kinds of pictures have been inscribed, which are able to give certain meanings.

b. Script of Cliff and Cave
This is the script inscribed on cliffs and inside caves. Pictures like hunting animals, grazing cattle, and battle scenes don’t signal any scripts but are dictated by the goal and purpose of separating the pictures and script from each other.

c. Tap Script or Mutual Script
This script includes various pictures that carry meaning. The mixed-use of animals, forests, hills, rivers, brooks, flowers, houses, roads, etc., has been able to communicate. To decode this script there is no fixed vowel or consonant or any language. So, meaning had to be predicted by seeing the pictures. Humans of this time used to communicate through pictures, as there was no developed script.

(2) Script of Ancestors
The duration of this script is around 2,400 years, from 3,500 B.C. through to 1,100 B.C. This script developed in the littoral location of mid-eastern Europe with vowels and consonants. This location is present-day Iraq. In the vicinity of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, there used to live people of some castes. Out of them, the people called Euphrates developed a script, which is called ‘Nail Script’. It was called “Nail” as the letters were similar to the head of Nail. As this script is the first ancient script, it has great value. In spite of its expansion from 300 B.C. to 100 B.C., this script became extinct. Scholars found it 1,500 years ago, but until the end of the 18^th century, there was none to decode this script well. Attempts to understand them were found to have been done in the 19^th century only.

Sometime later, the people of Egypt created a new script calling it the letters of god. They created three types of scripts. They are:
(a) Inscripted script
(b) Scriptures script
(c) Common people’s script.

The first script used to be inscribed on the stones of religious places, in the praying places of gods and goddesses and in the stones of crematories. The second script seems to have accompanied the first script. They were written fast with pictures of animals, made in an unclear manner. Earlier philosophers and scholars had used this script. Later on, as religious people started to use it, it was started to be called ‘Scripture Script. Common people’s script was called so, as common people were able to comprehend the picture and boring script used by scripture script. All three scripts were far apart from each other. Among the scripts, the second script was extinct within 300 A.D., whereas the commoner’s script existed for 500 years and was extinct.

Thus, the 3,500-year-old history of these scripts got buried under the sand as none comprehended them. No attempts were made to decode them, though they were discovered 1500 years ago. 300 years of trying to decode it brought no fruit. Later, the head of the French army found a pillar at Rosetta of Egypt in 1799 A.D., which proved to be key to the study of hidden scripts. The pillar seemed to have been made around 197 B.C. to 176 B.C. It contained prayers of Egyptian priests to the King. In the research, it was found to be commoners’ script and script inscribed following the commoners. In the end, the Scripture Script was also discovered and became known to all. Once again, all got the opportunity to see and know 3500 years 3500-year-old history of Egypt.

Around 1300 B.C. Leather Script was found in the South Asian region with inscriptions on the bones of tortoises and other animals. As Western script had been created, it had been predicted that Leather Script followed the western script.

Various types of inscriptions used to be inscribed in the bones, and this script was used for stately functions such as ‘Crossroad’. Dice of crossroad and leather and bones used in the stately affairs were kept in record. Such record of around 270 years of kings reigning for more than 10 years had been found. This script is famously supposed to have been the origin of present-day Chinese Script.

In spite of all the above, all did not know this, as it got lost for a long time. In 1899, a cryptologist (script expert) of Peking, Dr. Wangsu Yan, while taking medicine, found inside the medicine dragon bone and various pictures. The red colour inside the picture was also found. As he signalled some important discovery, he bought lots of dragon bones, and on examination, it was discovered to be a script. From this research, 1000 comprehensible letters were found out of 4000 letters. Thus, there are three scripts of ancestors:

a) Nail Script developed by Euphrateans
b) God Script developed by Egyptians
c) Leather/Bone Script developed by Chinese

All three scripts have inner coherence in spite of their outer dissimilarity.

(3) Script of Vowel and Consonant
2000 years after the creation of the ‘Nail Script’ and the ‘God Script’, the ‘Vowel and Consonant script’ got its development around 1700 B.C. to 1500 B.C.  The oldest vowel and consonant were found to have been created in Palestine in around 1700 B.C. They had been developed in the eastern littoral villages. Vowel and consonants of Semites developed across Eastern Europe of present-day Lebanon. The people residing there would have their livelihood through business. In their northeast developed the ‘Nail Script’, and in their southwest developed the ‘God Script’ of Egyptians. As they were in business and lacked time to use burdensome scripts, they developed their own new script with the help of other scripts. They took signs and symbols of vowel tone and any rhythm from them and mixed them with their signs, maps, pictures and symbols. It has been found they had prepared a list of trading goods’ names and price lists depending on these pictures and signs. They were not much concerned with comprehending the meaning of vowels and consonants. Rather, they were busy in their business and hadn’t thought they would benefit much from this. Over the time, this script proved a grand and great success in comparison to other scripts.

Thus developed ‘Vowel and Consonant Script’ can be divided into four categories they are:
a. Canaanite
b. Aramaic
c. Saba (South)
d. Greek

From there, this script extended to both East and West. Aramaic extended in the Arabian Peninsula of the Asian region. The reason to call Arama is that people residing on the bank of the river that runs through Syria are called Arama. In the Arama, they have great pillars inscribed in the script. Such inscribed stone pillars have been found in Arabs, Egypt, Greece and India. In around the seventh century B.C., this script developed not only in the banks of two rivers of Syria but also in Egypt, Asia Minor and through to India. It was mainly used as a trading language.