The Emergence of Hieroglyphics and Ancient Civ

https://greekreporter.com/2024/02/13/ancient-egyptians-start-using-hieroglyphs/

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were commonly etched into stone
and used in temples, tombs, and other monuments, with the first
fully formed sentence found around 2800 BC. The word “hieroglyphs”
comes from the Greek adjective “hieroglyphikos,” meaning “sacred
carving.”

Early forms of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs existed before
this time, however, with some experts claiming that the writing
system may have its origins in artistic symbols used on Gerzean
pottery from around 4000 BC. Some of this resemble the hieroglyphs
we know today.

. . .

   More "fully formed sentences" in this writing system seem
   to date to about 2800-BC according to the article.

   Note that this is relatively LATE in the history of
   civilization. Egypt did not lead - it was Sumeria,
   Ur/Uruk, that were about 2000 years ahead of Egypt.

   Semi-sophisticated civ had existed since maybe 12,000-BC
   as evidenced by sites like Gobekli Tepe and what seems
   to be parallel/contemporary areas in about the same
   area of today's southern Turkey. However they did not
   seem to have a "writing system"  per-se - just random
   odd nature-related symbols and megaliths of unclear
   meaning. Guess you had to be there to really understand.

   In any case, "civilization" seems to date to at least
   12,000-BC - likely a bit before.

   Note that, at the time, these areas were NOT semi-arid
   like they are today. They only got that way well after
   the last ice-age ended. And no, NO "world flood", but
   likely a bunch of REGIONAL floods when ice-age ice-dams
   and such failed. Would have SEEMED like a world flood
   to the people there however ... esp in the Tigris/
   Euphrates valley. In any case, there are continuous
   records and artifacts that go well through any presumed
   "world flood" - so ditch the mythology. It Never Happened.

   There ARE hints of even older, maybe even pre-ice-age,
   civs. MIGHT have been fairly sophisticated. Alas the
   ice-age changed everything, and the ice CRUSHED a
   lot of stuff. Old civs often emerged where rivers
   met the sea - good spots. Alas the sea rose over
   100 meters when the ice-age ended. NOW, all evidence
   is deep under ... and HARD to find/recover. It will
   be done eventually though, and it'll be VERY interesting.

   Sorry, no "Atlantis" IMHO ... higher-tech civs leave
   a lot of identifiable chemical/physical "fingerprints"
   and nothing like that has ever been even remotely
   found. MIGHT find an ice-age bronze civ ... maybe.
   At the time it WOULD have seemed like an "Atlantis".

   Now if we find Teflon/benzene/etc in some 25k old
   layer ...... well ..........

   "Humans", in fairly contemporary form, have existed
   for about 300,000 years. Neanderthals - ALMOST
   human - for a long time before that. The potential
   for civilization has thus existed for a very very
   long time. Just have to get a critical mass of
   people in one place and the magic, emergent
   behavior, happens ..........

   This 'emergent behavior' is super-interesting
   unto itself. How/why does this seem to be built
   into our nervous systems ??? X-number of people
   in one spot and all the perks - architecture,
   math, astronomy, etc - immediately pop up.
   This is just WEIRD. A vast difference between
   "human" and "humanS".