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Fro Wikisources: RUNES, RUNIC LANGUAGE AND INSCRIPTIONS. The art of writing with an alphabet appears to have been introduced into Germanic Europe in the Iron A
by jonsen 11y ago
Fro Wikisources:
RUNES, RUNIC LANGUAGE AND INSCRIPTIONS. The art of writing with an alphabet appears to have been introduced into Germanic Europe in the Iron Age. ... The Iron Age is supposed to have existed from circa 200 to circa 650, and it is to the close of this epoch that the beginning of the writing on Scandinavian memorials is attributed.
- TheOtherHobbes 11y agoWhat we think of as writing is hard without the right technology. You need parchment/vellum/papyrus, and something to make ink, and something to make pens with. None of this is trivial. And it's not obvious until someone invents it, or is told how to do it by someone else. So you can have an alphabet - but if it's only ever engraved into rocks, that guarantees that whatever gets written is really, really important to someone, and there won't be a lot of diarising, philosophising, or gossip, or even recording of battles. The fact that we can buy pens, paper, and digital keyboards so easily we take them for granted is actually kind of amazing.
- eru 11y ago> [...] but if it's only ever engraved into rocks, [...] You can engrave into wood much easier. Won't last for as long as rocks, though. That's why we see less of it.