Earliest know formation of language

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-05-19 02:48pm

What is the oldest form of language that has been discovered. . . . . . .In other words, . . . . about when did humans develope a written language? What was it, and how primative was it, relatively? I'm looking for writings beyond simple cave drawings of animals.

l33telboi · Post by **l33telboi** » 2006-05-19 02:59pm

Hmm, i'm no history buff, but isn't cuniform considered the first real 'written' language.

As for where it came from. Earths oldest and first officaly recognised civilization.

Summeria (you might know it better as Iraq.)

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2006-05-19 03:41pm

Older than Sumeria, really. There are recording keeping languages they are discovering that are older, actually centered around Bahrain, I understand. They know that a civilization was there that predates Sumeria, but it is so old that they don't know what to call it as its name passed out of history and only have fragments of business ledgers.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2006-05-19 04:17pm

What about the Pnakotic manuscripts?

Seriously, though, I didn't know about a civilization that predated Sumeria. Did Sumeria descend from it, or is it relatively unique?

Count Dooku · Post by **Count Dooku** » 2006-05-19 04:36pm

Do cave paintings count as written language? If so, then you might be able to go back 50,000+ years. I guess, in a way, they might be. I mean, afterall, the cave paintings are there to tell a story.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2006-05-19 05:14pm

Alferd Packer wrote:Seriously, though, I didn't know about a civilization that predated Sumeria. Did Sumeria descend from it, or is it relatively unique?

It was related to Sumeria, according to the person that was telling me this and they've been calling it "Dilmun" which isn't technically the name they probably used since that was the ancient name of Bahrain used afterwards, which we do know a bit about. Appearantly, it fulfilled the same basic niche as civilizations around Bahrain do, as a critical junction and trade point between the Indus Valley civilizations and the Middle Eastern civilizations. I don't know very much about it, really. So take any of the above with the grain of salt, since it was told to me by an archeology student at a get together. But from all the sources I can find on it, the civilization on Bahrain is damn old, even though it appears they were Sumerian contemporaries in their prime.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2006-05-19 11:46pm

There's evidence from tombs at Abydos that show Egypt was well along with developing their writing in the pre-dynastic period, 3400-3200 BC.

Ariphaos · Post by **Ariphaos** » 2006-05-20 10:56am

Frank Hipper wrote:There's evidence from tombs at Abydos that show Egypt was well along with developing their writing in the pre-dynastic period, 3400-3200 BC.

Cuniform dates to ~4k B.C.E, a school was even founded in ~3500, so it predates Egyptian. The Indus Valley is similarly old, I think.

Settlements date back to the dawn of agriculture, some twelve thousand years ago. Certainly some form of recordkeeping languages, even if primitive, would have developed around then.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2006-05-20 12:19pm

Xeriar wrote:Settlements date back to the dawn of agriculture, some twelve thousand years ago. Certainly some form of recordkeeping languages, even if primitive, would have developed around then.

Possible, but not necessarily in any form you would recognise as written language. The Inca, for example, had a "written" language based on bits of knotted string.

Ariphaos · Post by **Ariphaos** » 2006-05-20 03:50pm

Vendetta wrote:Possible, but not necessarily in any form you would recognise as written language. The Inca, for example, had a "written" language based on bits of knotted string.

That was their accounting, and was purely math. Some claim that they had pictographs though it's disputed.

Magnetic · Post by **Magnetic** » 2006-05-26 09:46am

How old has the Mayan culture been determined to be?

Ariphaos · Post by **Ariphaos** » 2006-05-26 11:37am

Magnetic wrote:How old has the Mayan culture been determined to be?

The Olmecs, their progenitors (and those of the Aztecs) began around 1400 B.C.E.

Elements of the Mayan civilization are claimed to have begun around 1,000 B.C.E but I think the people traditionally referred to as Mayan began around 250 C.E.