A late 19th Century chart illustrating various types of historic writing. Writing was thought to have been invented in a single civilization, a theory named "monogenesis"and originated in ancient Sumer (in Mesopotamia) and spread over the world from there via a process of cultural diffusion. According to this theory, the concept of representing language by written marks, though not necessarily the specifics of how such a system worked, was passed on by traders or merchants traveling between geographical regions

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Size: 3385px × 5091px
Location: Universal
Photo credit: © De Luan / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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