Thousands of years ago, our ancestors used symbols to track the sale of textile and agricultural products. New research ...

Researchers have uncovered links between the precursor to the world’s oldest writing system and the mysterious, intricate ...

Scholars consider cuneiform the first writing ... signs in the first writing in the region?" Motifs carved into cylindrical seals, left and center, were compared with abstract proto-cuneiform symbols.

So, the first question driving an intriguing, though controversial, new study was: “Did seal imagery contribute significantly ...

Scholars studying the history of it distinguish between pre-writing symbols used to mark objects and more precise marks that establish an exact correspondence between sign and sound; script and ...

A new study revives the old argument that ancient seals came before cuneiform, humanity's earliest known example of writing.

Researchers investigating how the first writing arose identified ... to the researchers, several symbols engraved on stone "cylinder seals" were developed into signs used in "proto-cuneiform ...

But the origins of proto-cuneiform’s emergence have been murky, and many of its symbols remain undeciphered ... to the invention of signs in the first writing in the region?” ...