■Before "a character"

It is said that the Sumer character called first perfect "character" was developed around
B.C. 35
How did people record until it was invented?

Various records

These are the main record methods until a character is born.

●Knotted record

One of the most general record methods. It is said that it began to be used in early
stages of the Neolithic era. They made the knot to one string and expressed the number.
Moreover, string was colored as it passed through the time, and the knot became
complicated. there is a “quipe” of the Incaic Empire (13c?1533) which the knotted cord
most developed.

 

●Notch

This is a means which carries out communication of information by the notch of the
wooden skin, a stone, etc. The first notch attached intentionally is in about 100,000, and
is older than a knotted cord character. It played the same role as a knotted cord character
gradually.

●Pictograph

Pictorial symbol. It can express the details which cannot be expressed with a knotted cord
character or a notch. Tens of thousands of years of ago, the message like a picture was
told. Although it is very close to a character, since it is not the sign which signify spoken
language, it is not "a perfect character."