The world's oldest known system of writing was influenced by symbols used for trade — engravings found on cylinders used in the exchange of farming produce and textiles, a new study suggests.

Now, a new paper suggests that one of the world’s earliest writing systems may have been influenced by older symbols engraved on small cylinders. These stone “cylinder seals” helped our ...

These pictorial symbols were developed from earlier Mesoamerican writing systems and did not represent alphabetic letters, but components of words, ideas and names. They weren't meant to serve as ...