History of Handwriting

We always wonder, how did handwriting develop?

Handwriting evolved over a few thousand years ago, changing and adapting to new cultures, rituals, and new technologies.

In the beginning, before writing came into existence there was only verbal communication, with cultural norms, rituals & stories passed on orally from one generation to the other and became the only source of retaining history. As language and cultures evolved and so did the need for communication also. In order to meet the need, written communication came into existence in the form of simple drawing and inscriptions. These drawings & inscriptions became pictographs and pictographs became standardized within every culture.

Writing came into existence.

Writing…, a codified system of standardized symbols & drawing. These different standardized symbols & drawings, agreed upon the simple shapes & its size were developed in different cultures & communities which were repeatedly used to represent ideas & interact with each other. Over span of years this developed into a set of pattern, which generally came to be known as ‘Language.’

This recognizable writing systems developed in three major cultures within 1200 years of each other. Sumerian cuneiform developed around 3000 BC, Egyptian hieroglyphs around 2000 BC, and the precursor of Kanji Chinese around 1800 BC. The development of writing allowed cultures to record events, laws, history, science, theories in math, creating literature, medicine, etc.