Every writing system on Earth descends from just 3 inventions.

And one of them — we still can't read.

Cuneiform — the world's first writing, invented in Mesopotamia around 3400 BCE

Hieroglyphs — Egypt's independently invented script, c. 3200 BCE

Oracle bone script — Chinese writing born from divination, c. 1250 BCE

Phoenician — the 22-letter alphabet behind every European writing system

Maya glyphs — a fully independent writing system invented in Mesoamerica

Indus script — a 2600 BCE writing system still undeciphered today

Hangul — Korea's 1443 CE alphabet, the only script with a known designer and a birthday

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Cuneiform began as Sumerian accounting, Egyptian hieroglyphs were invented independently in three forms, and Chinese writing started as divination on cracked turtle shells. The Phoenician alphabet, built by traders around 1050 BCE, became the ancestor of nearly every European script alive today. The Maya invented writing with zero contact with the Old World, while the Indus script — from a civilization larger than Egypt and Mesopotamia combined — remains completely undeciphered.