History of writing

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The history of writing encompasses the various writing systems that evolved in the Early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BC) out of neolithic proto-writing.

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-:''[[Pre 18th-century literature]]''
+The '''history of writing''' encompasses the various ''[[writing systems]]'' that [[history|evolved]] in the [[Early Bronze Age]] (late [[4th millennium BC]]) out of [[neolithic]] ''proto-writing''.
-The '''[[History of literature]]''' begins with the [[history of writing]], in [[Bronze Age]] [[Mesopotamia]] and [[Ancient Egypt]], although the oldest literary texts that have come down to us date to a full millennium after the invention of writing, to the late [[3rd millennium BC]]. The earliest literary authors known by name are [[Ptahhotep]] and [[Enheduanna]], dating to ca. the [[24th century BC|24th]] and [[23rd century BC|23rd]] centuries BC, respectively.
-Texts handed down by [[oral tradition]] may predate their fixation in written form by several centuries, or, in extreme cases, even millennia. [[Classical Antiquity]] is usually considered to begin with [[Homer]], in the [[8th century BC]]. Many older literary texts are known, but often difficult to date. This includes the texts in the [[Hebrew Bible]], the [[Pentateuch]] being traditionally dated to the 15th century BC, while modern scholars put it to the 10th century BC at the very earliest.
-An early example  is the so called ''[[Egyptian Book of the Dead]]'' which was eventually written down in the ''[[Papyrus of Ani]]'' around [[250 BC]] but probably dates from about the [[18th century BC]].
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