CHENNAI: The earliest records of writing, dated more than 3,000 years BC, were found in Iraq. Swaminathan, former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, kept the audience at the Roja Muthiah Research Library spellbound with his presentation on the story of writing on Thursday evening.

The Library is organising lectures on various social, cultural and historical themes on the third Thursday of each month on its premises.

Tracing the possible routes taken by the Sumerian, Chinese and Egyptian scripts, Dr. Swaminathan peppered the talk with visuals and anecdotes relating to the history of the writing and the deciphering of the ancient scripts.

Forms of recording that preceded writing included the `quipu' used by the Incas, a collection of threads of various colours knotted in different places. The colours, placement of knots all signified particular things and could be used to maintain records.

He traced the history of hieroglyphic scripts demonstrating the changes the various media of writing created on figurative scripts.

"The Egyptian script was originally intended to talk to the gods and was inscribed in tombs, which may explain why the script remained almost unchanged for a few thousand years," Dr. Swaminathan said.

A slide show of varied creative calligraphic forms that could be composed in Arabic concluded the lecture.

The lecture series is being conducted at the Roja Muthiah Library, opposite the Indira Nagar MRTS station in Taramani.

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