From Clay to Code

Listicle

From Clay to Code

Six leaps in how humans recorded the world.

1. 1

   c. 3400 BCE

   Writing in Sumer

   Cuneiform began as accounting marks on clay—among the oldest known writing systems—turning debts and inventories into durable memory.

2. 2

   c. 3200 BCE

   Egyptian hieroglyphs

   A formal writing system took shape along the Nile, pairing sacred monument text with practical administration.

3. 3

   c. 1100 BCE

   Phoenician alphabet

   A compact phonetic alphabet spread through Mediterranean trade and became an ancestor of many later scripts.

4. 4

   105 CE

   Paper in China

   Improved plant-fiber paper made books and bureaucracy lighter to carry and cheaper to copy than silk or bamboo.

5. 5

   c. 1450 CE

   Printing press

   Gutenberg’s movable type ignited wider circulation of ideas across Europe.

6. 6

   1844 CE

   Telegraph network

   Samuel Morse’s long-distance message—“What hath God wrought”—helped launch a web of near-instant text that remade news and diplomacy.