Long before those rules were invented, symbols representing basic concepts ... cylinder seals they analyzed originated before writing emerged in ancient Mesopotamia, through to the proto-literate ...

This ancient writing system was used more than 5000 years ... they apparently invented their own symbols—and didn't bother to keep track of them in an organized way, expert Jacob Dahl told ...

The ancient Egyptians invented one of the earliest known writing systems used from around 3000 BC. The symbols they used were called hieroglyphs, which comes from a Greek word meaning ...