What were the nest steps in the development of writing?

What were the nest steps in the development of writing?

Once men found that they could make marks to signify syllables and sounds, there was no longer a need to draw pictures. By 3000 BC, the Sumerians, the Hittites, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians developed cuneiform writing, a system of wedge-shaped marks impressed in clay that was able to completely express the various languages. By 1700 BC, the Minoan Empire had developed and actual script. The wedge shaped figures disappeared, and people began to write in flowing curves. But it still represented only items and ideas and, at the best, a few syllables. An alphabet was needed. It arrived a thousand years after the onset of the Minoan script, and it began a whole new era.
The ancient Romans gave us most of our modern languages. Their language was Latin, the basis for most of the Western tongues. The actual shapes of the letters we use in print today are descended from the shapes of the early Roman letters. Then, writing came to another stand still. The alphabet had been formalized, standard shapes for all the letters had been adopted, and that was it. Learning to read was a luxury because it was so difficult to obtain reading material. A new invention was needed – a way to make many copies easily and cheaply. The date was 1440 and it marked man’s first use of movable type.