Timeline Library
HomeAncient Writing Systems

Ancient Writing Systems

Subcategories

Early Alphabetic And Semitic Scripts4East Asian Scripts3Egyptian Hieroglyphic And Related Scripts3Mesoamerican Writing Systems3Mesopotamian Cuneiform4South Asian Indus Scripts2

© 2026 Timeline Library

SearchPrivacy

Uruk and Early Sumerian Cuneiform Development (c. 3500–2000 BCE)

3350 BCE - 2004 BCE

13 entries

Transmission of Chinese Characters via Buddhist Texts to Korea and Japan (c. 5th–10th centuries CE)

372 - 804

12 entries

Transition from Seal Script to Clerical Script in Han China (c. 3rd century BCE–3rd century CE)

300 BCE - 220

12 entries

Ptolemaic Period Demotic and Late Egyptian Script Developments (c. 332 BCE–4th century CE)

332 BCE - 452

13 entries

Proto‑Sinaitic and Proto‑Canaanite Alphabetic Graffiti (c. 18th–12th centuries BCE)

1850 BCE - 2010

12 entries

Postclassic Codices and Mixtec‑Puebla Manuscript Traditions (c. 900–1521 CE)

1100 - 2016

13 entries

Phoenician Maritime Script and Colonial Transmission across the Mediterranean (c. 1200–200 BCE)

1500 BCE - 146 BCE

12 entries

Origins and Early Inscriptions of the Brahmi Script in South Asia (c. 3rd century BCE–1st century CE)

258 BCE - 100

12 entries

Oracle Bone Script and Shang Dynasty Inscriptions (c. 13th–11th centuries BCE)

1254 BCE - 2017

13 entries

Olmec and Epi‑Olmec Inscriptional Evidence (c. 900 BCE–100 CE)

900 BCE - 2007

16 entries

Old Kingdom Monumental Hieroglyphic Inscriptions (c. 2686–2181 BCE)

3100 BCE - 2181 BCE

13 entries

Middle Kingdom Hieratic Literary and Administrative Texts (c. 2055–1650 BCE)

2000 BCE - 1971

12 entries
Page 1 of 2Next