Writing: How it all began

I've only read a couple of our Writing Research Handbook, but I am struck by two aspects from the history chapter. #1 The authors make the claim that art and writing are separate mediums used for separate reasons. Their argument makes perfect sense, but I think I've always thought of early, prehistoric drawings as the first signs of writing...ie. a form of written communication. I'm still pondering their distinctions. #2 The authors trace the first 'writing' as an economic necessity, basically a method of keeping track of debts in a community. I'm struck by the idea that writing was birthed as a type of early credit card.... a way to keep track of debt...:)

Of course, I realize that the intricacies of the accounting systems the authors describe can't be simplified quite this much, but again, before reading this chapter, I think I would have tied the first function of writing as tied to story-telling (ie. the art again) or a function somehow tied to recognize the after-life. As the chapter recounts, this function develops much later.

Many things to consider....