Communication Prior to the Printing Press

1. Communication Prior to the Printing Press Michael Jackson

2. 35,000 BCE • Musical instruments emerged. • The bone flute was created for enjoyment; however, I believe it could have also been used as a sort of alarm or alert system.

3. 10,000 BCE • Notches in bones found in the Near East believed to be a lunar calendar. • The meaning of the marks are largely unknown; however, it is evident that they served a purpose at some point.

4. 8,000 BCE • Clay tokens appear in Sumer which may symbolize goods like sheep jars of oil. • It’s a precursor to writing. • These tokens were an entirely new medium for conveying information. Each token shape: cone, sphere, disk, etc., had a different meaning. • The token system was the first code and the earliest system of signs used for transmitting information.

5. Samples of clay tokens (counters)

6. 3500 BCE • Pictographic writing starts in Sumer and Elam. • It’s the earliest stage of inscriptions. • Tokens representing goods are placed in clay ball envelopes. • In order to show what was inside the envelopes, they press the tokens into the clay in the outside.

7. 3372 BCE • This is the start of the Mayan calendar.

8. 3100 BCE • Sumerians cuneiform numerals separate from symbols of goods. • Sharp sticks were pressed into wet clay so that information could be sent elsewhere (using tablets). • There were approximately 600 signs.

9. 3000 BCE • Egyptians developed hieroglyphics. • They were used for records and literature.

10. 3000 BCE • In the Mediterranean or Near East, the abacus is derived from counting boards. • Mathematics emerges.

11. 2700 BCE • Chinese ink is made from a mixture of soot, pine smoke, lamp oil, musk, and gelatin from donkey skin.

12. 2640 BCE • China produces silk which is used as a writing surface before paper.

13. 2600 BCE • Scribes in Egypt employ hieratic writing, a condensed, cursive hieroglyphic. It is called “Cursive Script.”

14. 2500 BCE • Oral language could now be recorded by written language. It could now be read aloud and more records were likely kept because of this.

15. 2200 BCE • Oldest existing document written on papyrus.

16. 2060 BCE • The king of Ur in Sumeria, Ur-Nammu, creates the first known code of law.

17. 2000 BCE • Sundials are in the Fertile Crescent.

18. 2000 BCE • The first known written legend is born in Sumer. • Gilgamesh, a poetic Noah’s ark tale.

19. 2000 BCE • Percussion instruments are played in Egypt. • Possibly used for ceremonial purposes.

20. 2000 BCE • First signed text appears, written by Enheduanna, a woman in Mesopotamia.

21. 1700 BCE • The written law code of Hammurabi is carved on a stone pillar in Babylonia. • This way, laws were easily known rather than just spreading them verbally.

22. 1650 BCE • Hieroglyphics begin forming alphabetic symbols which are found in Sinai inscriptions.

23. 1500 BCE • In India, sacred hymns of the Rig Veda are written in Sanskrit.

24. 1500 BCE • Babylonian mathematicians figure out the Pythagorean Theorem.

25. 1400 BCE • Oldest record of writing in China is on bones and tortoise shells.

26. 1200 BCE • The 22 letters, all consonant, Phoenician alphabet is developed.

27. 950 BCE • The first books of the Bible are written. • Stories that had been told verbally were now being written down.

28. 900 BCE • Spread of phonetic alphabet throughout the Mediterranean region.

29. 900 BCE • Postal service is organized for government use.

30. 900 BCE • Oldest Hebrew text in existence. • Clay tablets lists the months of the year.

31. 800 BCE • The Phoenician alphabet is improved by adding vowels; capital letters only.

32. 600 BCE • Left-to-right writing is agreed upon by Mediterranean cultures.

33. 600 BCE • The first appearance of Latin.

34. 400 BCE • Democritus originates the theory that matter consists of colliding atoms.

35. 399 BCE • Socrates drinks poison and nothing written by the famed philosopher survives.

36. 396 BCE • Plato’s Apologia defends Socrates.

37. 387 BCE • Plato’s Symposium uses Socratic logic.

38. 350 BCE • Aristotle explains logical reasoning in Organon.

39. 322 BCE • Death of Aristotle, collector of human knowledge.

40. 213 BCE • The Chinese emperor orders destruction of all books.

41. 59 BCE • The ActaDiurna, the first daily news service, appears.

42. 47 BCE • Julius Caesar’s troops set fire to the Alexandrian Library. • Although it survives, many books are lost.

43. 14 CE • A network of relay runner setup in Rome carries messages 50 miles in a day.

44. 105 CE • Paper is invented in China by imperial eunuch Ts’ai.

45. 400 CE • Writing systems and vocabulary spread from India to Southeast Asia.

46. 400 CE • Books cut into pages and bound are now preferred to scrolls.

47. 550 CE • Block printing (xylography) is created in China. • Print could now be stamped onto surfaces, which cut down on handwriting, which was time consuming.

48. 600 CE • Quills are made from crow’s feathers, which increased the ease and accessibility of writing.

49. 740 CE • A newspaper is printed in China.

50. 751 CE • Paper travels west after Muslims obtain Chinese citizens that know how to make it.