Messages of the Past

Foundation of Communication > Messages of the Past

Man's first forms of communication were gestures and sounds, but the first human records are prehistoric cavern paintings. These represented daily life and are a very primitive form of pictography.

Pictography is the first form of writing, formed by sets of figures (people, animals, objects) called pictograms. To record and transmit more complex information, societies developed ideograms, symbols that represent abstract ideas. Chinese characters are today the evolution of a combination of pictograms, ideograms and signals that indicate sounds. The alphabet is a different type of writing, in which a character represents a sound and the characters are combined to form words.

The oldest system of writing came from the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. They invented cuneiform writing around 3000 B.C., a simplification of pictographic writing. Its name is due the use of a stiletto in form of wedge (Cuneus in Latin) to write on adobe boards.

About 2000 B.C., messages, engraved in clay boards, were sent to the addressees in "envelopes" of the same material, through a messenger. But the quick transmission of important messages to more distant places was vital in the military strategy. Tambours, swallows, pigeons, smoke, horses, all were used to send messages. With visual signals sent through a visual telegraphic line (Consult the section Visual Telegraph in the Information Terminal in this Gallery.), it was possible to transmit long-distance messages, with greater rapidity. With the discovery of electromagnetism, the Electric Telegraph replaced the visual telegraph and communications had entered in a new era.

Foundation of Communication > Messages of the Past