Is Writing Far Older Than We Think? Rethinking the Origins of Civilization
Recent discoveries are forcing archaeologists and historians to confront an unsettling possibility: writing may be far older than we have long believed.
For centuries, writing has been treated as a defining “marker of civilisation,” something that appears suddenly with the rise of complex societies in Mesopotamia and Egypt. But emerging evidence suggests this milestone may stretch much deeper into the past, challenging the neat timelines we rely on to explain human progress.
This raises an uncomfortable question: why wouldn’t early humans have developed written language? They already possessed complex speech, symbolic thought, art, ritual, and long-distance trade. If they could paint cave walls, track seasons, navigate landscapes, and pass down myths, what truly prevented them from recording information in lasting symbols?
And if early forms of writing or proto-writing did exist, the implications are profound. Prehistory would no longer be a silent age defined by absence, but a period rich in communication, record-keeping, and cultural complexity—much of it simply lost to time.
Reconsidering the origins of writing forces us to rethink prehistory itself. It suggests that human intelligence and creativity did not suddenly “switch on,” but evolved gradually, leaving behind traces we are only now beginning to recognize.
🎥 Watch the video below to explore the evidence suggesting writing may be far older than history records and what that means for how we understand early human civilization:
