Wednesday, June 1

            Etchings found on 8,600-year-old tortoise shells in China may become the world’s oldest evidence of writing if researchers confirm they are linked to the Dawenkou culture of 2800-2500 BCE.      

The oldest language is thought to be Sanskrit of the Indo-Iranian family.  

The oldest literature may be mythological stories from the Babylonians and written in Sumerian on clay tablets.  One of the most famous was the Epic of Gilgamesh.  

Of course way before all of this we know humans were trying to communicate with pictures and symbols as many cave drawings have been found and dated.  

And before this we don’t know when sounds were used such as grunts and groans or when verbal language first developed.  The earliest and greatest writing was thought to have been written recordings of oral traditions such as Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad and the many books of the Bible.

It is the same with gestures or sign language, we just don’t know when.  

We don’t know when man’s brain developed to the point where it prompted humans to want to share information.  

And the ultimate question, when did information itself first arise?