The origin of writing
The origin of writing has long fascinated scholars for obvious reasons. The dominant theory presently is that writing began in Mesopotamia, around 3200 BC, probably in the city of Uruk, thought to be the largest urban area ever built up to that time.
Writing begins in Egypt soon after, it is generally thought, although given that archaeologists have only scratched the surface of the Earth, all claims of 'prior art' must be treated with extreme caution.
Nevertheless, Schmandt-Besserat's theory of writing's origin in Mesopotamia has gained considerable traction. Partly, it is so popular, I think, because it nicely confirms a bias in modern scholarship towards Marxism, i.e. that everything can be explained by the relationship between power and trade. You see, Schmandt-Besserat's theory proposes that writing grew out of trading systems involving tokens and clay tablets marked with pictures of traded goods.
Of course, with the discovery of Gobekli Tepe, and our cracking of an astro-mythological system that seems to have been widespread in extremely ancient times, Schamndt-Besserat's theory might only be part of the story, and a small part at that. We see at Gobekli Tepe, and in earlier Palaeolithic cave art, systems of representation involving animal symbols that were previously thought to simply be pictures of animals. We now know, almost certainly, they represent constellations. Presumably, many of the other marks also have an astronomical basis. For example, we can interpret the picture above as indicating the sun and moon. Even if this is not quite correct, it is clear these astronomical symbols had an obvious meaning to the people that wrote them.
The plaquette above is another example. The site's archaeologists interpret it as pictures of a snake, tree-person, and bird. Much more likely, when viewed the other way up, it is the first known telling of the ancient myth 'the comet-god attacked and killed the cosmic chaos serpent, who fell to Earth'. See earlier posts about the importance of the trident symbol - which probably represents a comet-god. Even if this is not quite the correct reading of this tablet, given the clear astronomical symbolism on display at Gobekli Tepe, I doubt it is simply a picture of some animals.
So we need to think about the origin of writing again. The earliest symbols and stories appear to be astronomical and mythological. Much more likely, in my view, is that writing grew out of these earliest symbols and ways of thinking. The thought patterns needed for writing were already established long before the recording of trade became important.
I'll continue this line of reasoning in my next post - I'll try to put more meat on the bones of this idea.
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