Changing the Canon: Research on Ancient Writing Systems Beyond the Mesopotamian Bias

Harald Haarmann (Finland)

Abstract
 According to traditional concepts of culture chronology, the threshold of civilization was first passed in Mesopotamia in the late fourth millennium BCE. It is traditionally assumed that the first writing was developed in order to facilitate the recording of information in early state bureaucracy. The vision of Mesopotamia as the “cradle of civilization” and of the earliest existence of writing is no longer valid. The foundations for high culture and the early use of a script—predating Sumerian writing—have been identified for predynastic Egypt, and even earlier in Southeastern Europe. The signs and symbols from Neolithic societies of the Danube civilization, dated to the sixth millennium BCE, have opened a fruitful horizon for debates about the origins of writing.

Modern writing research needs a revision of its conventional conceptualizations and an extension of the range of issues studied. Insights about the early experiments with writing in the Danube civilization are already being discussed in domains such as the history of information technology, the philosophy of language, and the theory of culture. The pressing need for writing research to keep up with the pace of current scientific activities in the mentioned disciplines calls for the elaboration of a new paradigm beyond the Mesopotamian bias: a revised cultural chronology for the emergence of ancient civilizations; a revised typology of writing systems; and a revised conceptualization of sign use in the Neolithic of Southeastern Europe, untainted by misleading notions such as “potters’ marks” or “pre-writing.”