12.1. Historical Overview

People invented writing by means of letters only recently, considering that they have worked with secret texts since ever. Before the invention of letters, people recorded important events by means of symbols or signs only known to those instructed. The most perfected writing by means of symbols known to us is the Celtic runes, where a combination of characters can create a magic protocol, or a certain order of characters constitutes a talisman or an amulet.

Symbols and letters were created for and among spiritual and social elites, for their internal use, for transferring information, recording of important events and the like. Later, humans reached a development stage where they needed writing, and this led to a period of general writing, recording of events and technical achievements, with non-scientific and scientific literature being created: connections between places and people or nations resulted in a multilayer communication.

Prior to the general need for recording, when people did not yet invent letters, they recorded and preserved important texts by combining symbols, agreed signs and images. Such recording is found, for example, in ancient Egypt: the writing is known as the hieroglyphs. When this writing was explained, the Egyptian messages became understandable.

Much before the Egyptian civilisation, in prehistory, people also felt the need to record important events or procedures, e.g. for ensuring food and their own safety. The members of the human species were not as numerous as today, people lived in groups and did not need to hide certain texts, so they recorded them on the walls of the caves in which they lived. Today, these recordings are known as prehistoric art, which the science studies from all aspects. In my opinion the pictures on the walls are far from art: by drawing on the walls, the head of the group communicated a certain finding, experience, and did not want to exhibit his artistic capacities.