From 3500–3000 B.C., the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq, carved wedge-shaped signs on clay tablets with reed pens. These are cuneiform, the oldest known writing system. The ...

Throughout human history, certain inventions have fundamentally transformed the way we live, work, and interact with one ...

The Chinese Communist Party has embraced the study of Greek and Latin—as, in some ways, an antidote to the modern West.

A customer filing a complaint for being dissatisfied with the received product or even the treatment in the transaction is ...

Around 40,000 years ago, Paleolithic people inscribed bone with symbols that appear to be part of some sort of writing system ...

Over 40,000 years ago, our early ancestors were already carving signs into tools and sculptures. According to a new analysis by linguist Christian Bentz at Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa ...

A statistical analysis of a series of signs carved into artifacts from around 40,000 years ago suggests humans developed proto-writing in the Stone Age.

You can’t tell now, but I am writing this column in longhand. I’m on a tropical island (don’t hate me) without access to a computer screen (ditto) and composing a column this way is an enlightening — ...

Apparently, this approach for remembering grocery lists, house chores, deliveries, and the like was also a huge part of life for ancient Egyptians living over 2,000 years ago—something for which ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...