From the inscription on the bones to the e-mails .. British exhibition of the history and development of writing

Imran Abdullah

You read this report because of the evolution of writing that has been slowly passing through thousands of years, from carved stone inscriptions, medieval manuscripts, early prints to fine art lines, emoji and finally electronic writing.

The "Writing: Make Your Own Label" exhibition, hosted by the British Library in London until 27 August, will discuss writing and reflect on its past and its digital future through more than 100 pieces dating back five thousand years across the seven continents.

The exhibition presents the history of writing from its origins in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and the Americas. The exhibition traces the development of writing through various technologies and technologies in more than thirty different writing systems, including Greek, Chinese and Arabic.

The exhibition includes the development of ancient hieroglyphic writing carved into stone, through printed texts in early times such as the 15th-century English translation of William Cakston, who was a silk merchant, before becoming a print pioneer after introducing German printing technology to England.

The exhibition also features patterns of note and note arts along with Burmese tattoo tools from the early 19th century and modern reed pens to the digital communication tools we use today.

Visitors to the exhibition will never look at the modest payroll in the same way again after they discover that a 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian tablet.

The mud disk shows how barley is distributed as a wage to agricultural workers.

Although thousands of years have passed, the system today is no different from the old one. It is impressive to know that the electronic payroll we are currently seeing on the screens has a legacy extending to the early stages of civilization.

Unlike the old payroll, the exhibition explores how writing can be a personal, functional or aesthetic work, or even a political struggle. The exhibits challenge preconceptions about what writing we see around us and treat it as a matter of course.

The exhibition also addresses the future of writing.

So the writing evolved
The writing began to be largely record-keeping, so that the goods could be counted, or, as with the CD dating back more than 2500 BC from Central America, to record who ruled each kingdom.

These early historians and accountants seemed to be responsible for writing, which became so necessary for humanity that every child had to learn at school.

It is interesting to know that the letter A was originally the head of a bull and was considered part of the phonetic alphabet proposed as an alternative to the hieroglyphic script used by the ancient Egyptians, which were used as markers in writing.

Over time, the letter "A" was transformed by the adaptation of Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, and turned over all of this into a more abstract vocal character, before it was used as the first alphabetic alphabet.

The exhibition also features a beautiful Roman technique for quick writing, which was easy and possible in ancient times, with the use of lowercase letters before it was decided that the sentences should be capitalized in the late 1970s for clarity and consistency.

The exhibition includes an aspect of old writing with stone and metal molds and even the hand-printed press in a section looking at "realist writing."

The exhibition explains how the invention of metal letter templates led to the end of traditional writing with a feather.

To build the exhibition, the British Library relied on its many holdings, including Chinese bones engraved with early Chinese characters in the late Shang Dynasty between 1300 BC and 1050 BC, and similar historical pieces bearing texts similar to modern books that can be found in bookstores.

These collections are complemented by pieces from the British Museum and the Petrie Museum in London, including a piece of ancient limestone Mayan civilization 2.2 meters high. The exhibition includes many elements that are first exhibited, including the Mozart catalog of his complete musical work from 1784-1791, and Alexander Fleming's His discovery of penicillin since 1928.

Among the exhibition's exhibits, which offer visitors for the first time an old 1800-year-old wax panel, has something like the homework of a Greek schoolboy, struggling to learn the Greek alphabet.

As well as the first book printed in England by Caxton in 1476, and includes "Canterbury Tales", a collection of poetry stories by Jeffrey Schuster.

The exhibition also includes 60,000 signatures in Bengali and English for a protest petition in 1905 to reject the division of Bengal. The exhibition features writing tools, including pens, brushes, pens, ballpoint pens, typewriters and computers.

Just as writing has given humans opportunities for progress and expression and art, the interactive exhibition offers opportunities for reflection and reflection on the evolution of genius, which would have existed without the traditions of writing in past civilizations.

For example, there is the dazzling Japanese line filled with gold, and various historical records, including the memoirs of James Joyce for his novel Ulysses, which was called "the epic of the twentieth century."

Finally, the collection of the exhibition leads to reflect on the future of writing and the role that modern communication technology will play in an increasingly digital world. Will we abandon pens and keyboards and deliberately communicate via voice and video, or will we continue to work in the tradition of antiquity in writing?