■Spreading of a character

Sumerian writing spread to the neighbor countries ,and other writing arose all over the world.

Cuneiform and selection of writing

The Sumerian writing is called “cuneiform”. Cuneiform had become the basis of Mesopotamian civilization and had used for more than 3000 years.
Cuneiform gradually became more simple and Assirian writing or Persian writing had come out.
Writing develop more useful in each region or time.
It does not occur by natural. It is changed by human with their necessity.
However,in empire of Assirian,cuneiform disappeared because of the development of Aramic alphabet.
As this way, many character had arisen and the character which became unnecessary had been vanished.
We could say “this is the history of writing”.

▲Basically onmarch of history of characters.

The rise of writing all over the world

Various writing had come out in every region after the rise of cuneiform.
Cuneiform is the basis of all character in the world.

Hieroglyph (ancient Egypt)

Hieroglyph is especially famous in the historical characters.
It arose in ancient Egyptian civilization in 3000B.C. It was 500 years after the rise of cuneiform.
The origins of hieroglyph is not sure.
Some scholars say that it was more or less influenced by cuneiform,but other scholars insist that it was perfectly original, so it is under study.
It is said that the way of making letter by combination of letters like Kanji character was developed in this age.
As described previously,writing was vital as the basis of the civilization, Egyptian dinasty regarded this writing as convenient .

▲Hieroglyph

Elam characer(Iran)

At the same time of the hieroglyph age,Elam character had occurred in Iran.
It is affected by cuneiform and is identified with one of the derivation of cuneiform.

▲Elam characer

Kanji Character (China)

Kanji character is probably the most strange character in the world,and it is said to have arisen in 13th century B.C.
The oldest letter which have found is “oracle bone script”. Some letter of this seems to be readable for us.
The origins of kanji character is also not sure.
Some say it may be influenced by cuneiform because it had occurred very late.

Indus character (India)

In Indus civilization, Indus character had used from about 2600B.C.
There are many derivations of Indus character, so it is very important character historically.
However,the detail is unknown because it has not deciphered yet.

▲Indus character

Each development

Other than above, some character which was the basis of new character came out gradually.
They joined together and became the base of modern-day writing which we use today.

▲system of characters.We can see the association.

（Steven Roger Fischer"History of Writing"2005）