††††We send language messages in two quite different ways: we say them or we write them.
The earliest examples of writing are forms of picture writing or pictographs. Pictures of objects, such as a foot which represented the idea of walking or of a circle for the sun, were drawn on clay when it was soft. The tablets were then baked in the sun. Many of these tablets have been found in what is now Iraq and Iran. The earliest date from around 3500 BC. They mostly record land sales, business deals and tax accounts.
The first true writing was developed by the Sumerians in the land of Mesopotamia (now Iraq). The earliest examples are dated to about 3250 BC. The Sumerians used wedge-shaped signs on tablets of clay to develop a type of writing known as cuneiform. Cuneiform was used for about 3000 years.
