The history of writing? can anyone help?

Question

how did the WRITTEN language evolve into its current states? what were the demands/needs/conditions that made writing possible (economic? social? etc.?)

how did ancient writing turn contemporary? ( a timeline would be GREAT to demonstrate this, and if you know i would like to see it ^^)

i need to write a report about the history of writing and i want to have a little background before i start, PLEASE help me out here ^^ any information is greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Writing initally started out as simple etchings, a way to keep track of say, sheep, cattle, crops etc., and also as pictures. They then discovered that there was a way to leave messages and stories. Pictograms developed as a result, for example the pictograms on Mayan remains. Heiroglyphs and symbols were the next step, for example the Egyptian heiroglyps and babylonian wedge etchings. Alphabetical style developed with the Arabic, Roman and Greeks, and English characters are mainly from the Arabs.

Hope this helps :)