The Beginning of Type

The Very First Symbols

The first evidence of communication through the use of symbols has been dated back to over five thousand years ago, when people lived in Mesopotamia. These symbols were used for different types of information to spread. They are called pictograms, and they were used for very basic information about crops and taxes. Over time, the need and demand for pictograms changed, and this gave the symbols shape and uniform. They were now written by a scribe in the form of a script, which we now call a cuneiform. This script contained numerous symbols and shapes which was understood by the people. 
Thousands of years passed and the Mesopotamians continued to scribe away about a number of things, such as daily events, trade, astronomy, literature and clay tablets.

Pictographs

Cuneiform

Developing Scriptures

Hieroglyphics

Hieroglyphics date back to 3000 BC, and most symbols represented a number of things, such as sound, an event or a word. There were drastic changes to the language as it evolved through time. Since the first use till the last use it is believed there were thousands of symbols used, and this made the language more complicated yet more varied and explainable. Although all these thousands of hieroglyphics were not used at the same time, it still remained very difficult to understand and learn this ancient language. At any time of the language being used it could have around 700 symbols, which was made harder considering each symbol meant a number of things. An interesting fact about hieroglyphics is that a single symbol could either be phonetic or an image representing an event.