Work Reviewed: Ferrara, Silvia. The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts.* Translated by Todd Portnowitz. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2022.
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Introduction
Why, how, and when was writing invented? Ferrara’s work explores the history of writing through a myriad of examples from across the globe, including Mesopotamia, China, Crete, Easter Island, and more. Through these case studies, she addresses the question of why, how, and when writing was invented. Why do some scripts last, and others don’t? How we can decipher scripts whose meaning we’ve forgotten?
In addition, she challenges preconceived notions about what actually constitutes a script. In fact, there is a debate over where certain methods of recording numbers or identity, like the the Inca quipu (knotted cords) or the pictorial seals found in the Indus Valley (c. 3000 BCE), belong within any discussion of writing. It’s an excellent introduction to the history of writing, and will introduce readers not only to scripts that emerged around the world in various civilizations, but even to several invented by individuals, such as Hildegard of Bingen.
Key Takeaways
1. Writing has been invented several times throughout human history.
Humans so love to create and communicate that we’ve managed to invent writing at least four times. This includes scripts from Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, and Central America. The author emphasizes that in each case, we must not think of invention as a static, “armchair” process. In fact, it might be too simple to ask “when was writing invented?” at all. In each case, it was a complex process of communication and transmission across space and time. A community might begin with icons (parts that stand in for a whole), followed by symbols, or abstract signs. Finally, they might develop syllable-based characters that stand in for the sounds of the words themselves.
On a personal note, I’ve been fascinated to see icons lose their meaning over time, and morph into symbols. For example, the symbol & is an ampersand. This was once recognizable to readers as a stand-in for the Latin conjunction “et,” meaning “and.” But the meaning of this symbol is unclear to most, and so, it has been relegated to the land of abstract signs.
2. There’s no magic formula leading to the invention of writing.
There are certainly forces that can help precipitate writing. But not every invention had all of the same ingredients in the mix. Bureaucracy, for instance, demands a stability of meaning that the invention of a script can remedy. And yet, not every bureaucracy in our history has led to a script. Nor has every script has come out of a bureaucracy. Ferrara points to the runes of Denmark and Germany as an example of a script without a bureaucracy. Then, there is the city of Kerma of Sudan as an instance of a complex bureaucracy that functioned without the invention of a script.
3. In fact, the invention of writing was not inevitable, and every script has its limitations.
It follows, then, that the development of scripts is not inevitable by any means. Society can and does function in their absence; and even when invented, scripts are not a panacea. Without writing, interactions occur in real time, where the participants have the advantage of tone, gesture, and of course, rapid responses. Interpreting text without the creator present can be difficult, whether occurring across the space and distance of a text message between friends, or an ancient tablet unearthed by a modern archaeologist. Synchronic interactions tend to have an edge, though technology is working on bridging those gaps.
4. Inventing a script is relatively easy, but disseminating and perpetuating one is difficult.
Ferrara raises the interesting question of why certain scripts have persisted, while others have faded. In some cases, as on Easter Island, the fall of a civilization can lead its language and scripts into obscurity. In others, the adoption by chance of a script by an influential group catapulted it to lasting use, as when Phoenician merchants began using the North Semitic order of the alphabet, starting with aleph just as the English alphabet now starts with “A”; rather than the South Semitic version, which became quite rare.
5. If you’re wondering when writing was invented, there are important differences between icons, symbols, scripts, and codes.
I’ve already alluded to this difference in discussing the ampersand, but there’s much more to say about these categories, since there have been many instances of disagreement over what actually constitutes a script or a language. A script communicates both a meaning AND a pronunciation; you can look at the word “dog,” for example, and picture a four-legged canine at the same time you hear the word pronounced.
Are the icon-covered seals of the Indus Valley, circa 3,000 BC, part of a script? Some argue no; analysis reveals that the images are too brief and repetitive. Are they perhaps family emblems, then? Without the creators, we do not know, although we have recovered roughly 4,000 of them. Finally, Ferrara points out an important difference between codes and the other three categories. Codes are meant to obscure meaning from outsiders, and so are inherently different from a script.
6. Scripts lose their “iconicity” over time, and relax as the system starts to feel complete to its users.
If you’ve studied language, you may know that languages tend to simplify over time. Scripts can, too, as their users become more and more comfortable with them. Ferrara details an experiment in which participants had to communicate using scripts they invented together on the fly, in a sort of Pictionary-style setting. While the symbols for various ideas began as very elaborate drawings, over the sessions, they began to lose some of their elements. For example, by the end of the study, one group could communicate the idea “Brad Pitt,” using a simple drawing of a pit, based on their previous communications about that idea.
7. The decipherment of a script is not a guarantee, even when parallel texts in known languages exist.
Ferrara describes the challenges of deciphering scripts through an application of the Johari window, a tool for self-awareness that defines four quadrants based on the following criteria: things that are known or unknown to self, and things that are known or unknown to others.
In the script-based version of this, a script can be either readable or unreadable; and record either a known or unknown language. So, the four quadrants that result are (Ferrara 223):
- Readable and understandable (English, for example; we can pronounce it and know what it means)
- Readable, but not understandable (pronounceable, but unclear what it means; see Etruscan, which is recorded in the Ancient Greek alphabet)
- Potentially decipherable, in that it records a known language in an unknown script. (Crete’s linear B, which turned out to record a version of Ancient Greek in a different alphabet);
- Unreadable and not understandable; therefore, indecipherable, as Crete’s Linear A)
AI holds potential for working on undeciphered scripts through statistical analysis, which you may be familiar with from certain word puzzles. For example, you might find two letters that only appear together, and surmise that these must be “Q” and “U.”
8. Ultimately, it may not be accurate to call writing “the greatest invention.”
I love a book that challenges its own premise, and Ferrara does so throughout. For example, she cites a Swedish survey that placed writing at the 30th greatest invention–with the wheel topping the list at number one. Not only that, she points out that writing has some downsides. One of the chief concerns she cites is “the danger that underlies the written word, of forgetfulness, oblivion,” (Ferrara 263).
More compelling, I thought, was her discussion of the value of oral traditions, as in the case of Avdo Međedović, a Yugoslavian guslar or bard who could recite over fifty epic poems of thousands of lines. But as Ferrara points out, this was not a word-for-word recitation, but rather, an improvisation around the core structure of the story. For me, that leads back to the most striking theme that emerges from Ferrara’s discussion: while scripts are good for stabilizing meaning, there is a beauty to the freedom and fluidity offered by the spoken word.
This review of The Greatest Invention is part of the April 2024 Signs and Symbols Trio. Follow me on Patreon for access to a discussion and study material for a new trio of selections each month, including access to all previous materials. Or, sign up for my email list here to stay up to date on the latest content.
