Birth of Writing
c. 3200 BCE
Recorded HistoryBirth of Writing
The earliest writing systems.
Around 3200 BCE the first writing systems appeared in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Proto-cuneiform tablets from Uruk, the oldest widely accepted writing, recorded goods and names.
Early hieroglyphs appear in Egypt in the same period. No source dates the first sign to a day.
c. 3200 BCE, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.
- Period
- c. 3200 BCE
- Edition
- 1/1
- Status
- Not Released
Background artwork
Cinematic background showing a scribe pressing signs into a clay tablet in Mesopotamia. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. The scene is imagined.