Did Writing First Appear In Egypt, Rather Than In Mesopotamia?

Can anyone help me find sources or any articles written on this topic? It'd be greatly appreciated.

I was watching the National Geographic channel a few days back and they were talking about the Scorpion King during the Proto-dynastic period of Ancient Egypt. While excavating at a site in perhaps, Southern Egypt, an archaeologist found small, square shaped tiles with symbols. Each symbol represented a phonetic sound and it's possible that these were a precursor to hieroglyphic writing.

I'm looking specifically for information about the world’s earliest phonetic writing system. Apparently writing began in Egypt earlier than previously thought.

reply to post by IEtherianSoul9


You may get lucky if you go to the Coast To Coast AM website and run a search. They have boucou interviews concerning ancient civilizations. After you locate a show, then go to Youtube and paste (or type) the title of the show in the search box. That is, unless you are a member of Coast2Coast.com. Good luck...

reply to post by IEtherianSoul9
This could be proto-Sinaitic script they were discussing. Or perhaps NatGeo's 'Oldest Hebrew Text...'

I think written language was unlikely to have arisen in one community or culture, but to have begun in several. Migratory spread had dispersed populations from Africa across to the British Isles before any known evidence of symbolic expression of language had begun. This could suggest that diverse populations were separated by not just space (1000s of miles), but time too. Whilst Sapiens and Neanders were settling in small areas and developing their culture, other groups were still spreading and perhaps had less stability to begin solidifying their culture.

So it's possible that the need and ability to communicate via written symbolism bubbled up into existence and expression independently in different communities.

You might find what you're looking for using variations of Google searches with ancient, phoneme,

Ealiest known, script,,when God read the Crane, in the dry sand
ohh in Egypt. that would be the Nile,,