“[...] Writing seems to be a product and convenience of commerce; here again culture may see how much it owes to trade. When the priests devised a system of pictures with which to write their magical, ceremonial and medical formulas, the secular and clerical strains in history, usually in conflict, merged for a moment to produce the greatest human invention since the coming of speech.
The development of writing almost civilization by providing a means for[:]
1) the recording and transmission of knowledge,
2) the accumulation of science,
3) the growth of literature,
4) and the spread of peace and order
among varied but communicating tribes brought by one language under a single state. The earliest appearance of writing marks that ever-receding point at which history begins."
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.6, Section III, Section 2, 1935 (italics and formatting added)
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