Ancient

communication
History of Human starts with the evolution of
communication which is never ending.
 What is Ancient communication
 Nowadays communication have changed significantly with different persons have
communicate through different languages but when it comes to Ancient
communication no languages have formed at that time so the important question is
how our ancestors communicate?

 In ancient times communication have done through :-

 By different sounds.
 By using different gestures
 By using symbols like :-
1. Cave paintings
2. Rock art
3. Petroglyphs
4. Proto-writing
5. Ideograms
6. Sign based writings etc.
 Process of Ancient Communication

2.Cave Paintings 3.Pictograms

1.
Origin of
Speech

4.Ideograms 5.Writing Scripts

 Communication at Primitive times
 The origin of speech, which began over 102,000 years ago approximately 100,000 BCE.
The imperfection of speech allowed easier dissemination of ideas and eventually
resulted in the creation of new forms of communication which may be simply known as
concept of the symbol.

 The oldest known symbols created for communication were cave paintings. The oldest
known cave painting is a red hand stencil in Maltravieso cave, Spain older than 64,000
years ago.
 Communication at Primitive times
Cave Paintings
The another oldest known cave painting is located within Chauvet cave, in France
dated to around 30,000 BCE. These paintings were modified repeatedly over thousands of
years, possibly explaining the confusion about that much finer paintings from that period.
 Communication at Primitive times
Rock Carvings
After the evolution of communication through cave paintings from approximately 20,000
years ago for Homo Sapiens to move from the first cave paintings to the first petroglyphs
the rock art of communication they are carved or scratched into the rock surface to
communicate the message. the oldest petroglyph discovered belongs to Timareh.
Communication at Primitive times
Rock Carvings
Fremont Petroglyph the most visible rock carvings still visible now.
 Introduction of Pictographs
1. Pictographs were used by various ancient culture all over the world since around
9000 BCE, it is a symbol that represents a object and place when tokens marked with
simple pictures began to be used to label symbols by drawings to portray the specific
place and object.
 Evolution From Pictographs to pictograms
Pictograms were the next step in the evolution of communication. A pictogram is a symbol
that represents a concept, object, activity, place or event they are same as pictographs but
pictograms are telling a story about the event, thus they can for example ordered
chronologically.
 Ancient emphasis on writings
1.Proto-writings
Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. it was as ancient
as 7000 BC, they are symbols to represent a limited number of concepts, in contrast to
true writing system, which record the language.

They were the basis of cuneiform and hieroglyphs and began to develop into logographic
writing systems around 5000 BCE.
 Ancient emphasis on writings
2.Ideograms
Ideograms are graphical symbols that represent an idea they were as old as 5000 BC, may
be its more sounds like pictograms but the main difference was pictograms represent only
which resemble something but on the other hand ideograms could convey more abstract
concepts and they were called precursors of logographic writing systems.
 3000 BC
Era of Language Models
It was the time when symbols are
turning into languages from
cuneiform script to hieroglyphics
scripts to clay tablets to the
invention of paper.
 Ancient Communication Scripts
1.Cuneiform Script
 Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system Dated about 3100 BC that was used to write
several languages and became the base of many ancient scripts.It was originally
developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

 Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped
impressions which form their signs. Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system.

 cuneiform was adapted to write a number of languages The other languages with
significant cuneiform script are Eblaite, Elamite, Hurrian, Luwian, and Urartian.
 Ancient Communication Scripts
2.Hieroglyphs script
 From 3300 BC language scripts became more advance when Ancient Egypt written the
Egyptian language hieroglyphs it combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and
alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.

 Hieroglyphs are the ultimate ancestor of the Phoenician alphabet, the first widely
adopted phonetic writing system.

 Pottery have been argued to resemble hieroglyphic writing in Ancient Egypt.

 Ancient Communication Scripts
3.Clay Tablets
 Clay tablets was as old as 5000 BC but may used widely from the period of 3300 BC after
the introduction of cuneiform Script and hieroglyphs script.

 Clay tablets were a medium used for writing more or less flat surface made of clay.
Using a stylus, symbols were pressed into the soft clay. It is possible to correct errors on
the tablet. The tablet was then baked until dry and hard, either by leaving it out in the
sun, or in a fire.\
 Ancient Communication Scripts
4.Indus Valley Script
 The Indus valley script was as old as Between 2600 BC to 1900 BC.

 The Vedic Era of 1500 BCE saw the creation of the earliest Hindu writings, The Indus
script, also known as the Harappan script and the Indus Valley Script, is a corpus of
symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilisation.

 afield as Mesopotamia due to existing Indus–Mesopotamia relations, with over 400

distinct signs represented across known inscriptions.
Brahmi script-

With the development of Indus valley script the Brahmi script was getting more advance
from the third century BCE. Many of the writing systems still in use in India today, such as
Tamil and Devanagari, have their roots in the Brahmi script.

The Gupta script, which was used during the Gupta Empire in the fourth and fifth
centuries CE,
the Kharosthi script, which was used in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, are
two examples of variations of the Brahmi script that have developed over time.
 Egyptians Delivered the First Paper to the
World
In 2300 BC the first paper-like plant-based writing sheet was papyrus in Egypt, the
manufacturing of papyrus by the Egyptians is considered to be the milestone in the
development of communication capabilities.
 Conclusion
Communication is a never ending
process in terms of ancient
communication we seen a significant
improvement year by year from cave
paintings to the introduction of
different writing scripts but it never
ends still advances with printing,
telegraph, internet and still
communication touches new
boundaries day by day and become
smarter along with human.
Thank You