“The origins of human language will perhaps remain forever obscure,” Historyworld.net very succinctly states. The beginning of language is an extremely difficult topic to study. There might have been hundreds or even thousands of languages and writings that were made during this time in history that, sadly, we will never see. There are two definite examples of language and/or communication that we know of and have evidence for during this time.

     One of these is the cave drawings that archeologists have found in old caves. These paintings were generally made from very primitive painting materials. Mortars and pestles, dyes, and painting tools were used to make what we know today to be the cave drawings. Why are these old drawings important? At first glance, what might seem to us like a group of old pictures of men and animals can turn out to be something much more significant.

     These drawings usually depicted men hunting, performing customs usual to the time, or showing just ordinary animals, like the bison in the picture. Historians date these paintings to be around 15,000 B.C. Most of them are found in France or Spain and are considered to be the oldest forms of writing or communication of all time.

     Although it seems that the world had not developed an official language, these people had, at least, developed a written or drawn form of communication. Through these pictures, these men were able to communicate with one another showing each other what they hunted and what they did during the different seasons. But more importantly, they were able to pass this on to the following generations. Once we consider the significance of it all, we can appreciate the cave drawings much, much more.

     The Egyptians did basically the same thing with their hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphics were an assortment of pictures and other engravings that the Egyptians used to convey messages which are considered to date back to 3,000 B. C. They were found in old tombs or even sometimes on papyrus scrolls. They told the history of their pharohs or gods and told of battles or plagues that were happening to them. Through these writings it’s obvious that the Egyptians had developed one of the first written languages. We also know that they were able to communicate with each other with words. One of the problems with this language is that it took a long time to write. Another was that it was difficult to understand and so there were only a few people who actually knew how to read and write it.

     It took a long time for modern man to realize that the hieroglyphics were actually an alphabet, and it was not really decoded until the 18th Century when the Rosetta Stone was found. Man has advanced very far from cave drawings and hieroglyphics, but this was just the beginning.

Sources:

Gascoigne, Bamber. "History of Language". Historyworld.net. Accessed 03 February 2009. <http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainText Histories.asp?historyid=ab13>.

Hitchcock, Don. "Cave Paintings and Sculptures." Don's Maps. 2008. Don's Maps. Accessed 16 Feb 2009. <http://www.donsmaps.com/cavepaintings.html>.

Johnson, Paul. "Cave Paintings." The Artchive. Art: A New History. Accessed 16 Feb 2009. <http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cave.html>.

Ancient-egypt-online.com, "The History of Hieroglyphics". ancient-egypt-online.com. Accessed 16 Feb 2009. <http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/history-of-hieroglyphics.html>.

Picture Sources:

Burkitt, M.. "The Old Stone Age." Don's Maps. 1955. Breuil. Accessed 03 Feb 2009 <http://www.donsmaps.com/images/bison2.jpg>.

Ancient-egypt.org, "Hieroglyphic". ancient-egypt.org. Accessed 03 Feb 2009
<http://www.ancient-egypt.org/ language/writing/cusrive_sample.jpg>.