The invention of writing was the beginning of the information revolution in which it allows ideas and news to be easily transmitted in a remote location without having to rely heavily on the memory of the messenger. . The invention is valuable and crucial in ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Egypt because writing systems recorded information such as the quantity of agricultural harvests as well as information relating to religion and government accordingly. In fact, scientists had used writing as one of the “markers” of civilization. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to explain the invention of writing in more detail by focusing on ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, whose writing systems have different formations, structures, a different writing style, etc. Egypt is called the "cradle of civilizations", with the beginning of our alphabet, the papyrus the Sphinx and the Rosetta Stone. Late in ancient Egyptian history, the ancient Egyptians developed and used three different types of writing: hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. Hieroglyphics are the foundation of the other two forms of writing, the ancient Egyptians believed they were invented by the god Thoth and called their hieroglyphic writing "mdwt ntr", the words of the god (Ager, 1998). Furthermore, the word hieroglyph comes from the Greek hieros (sacred) and the Greek glypho (inscriptions). As the name suggests, hieroglyphic writing was primarily used for formal inscriptions on temple walls or public monuments, but despite this, it was also used in furniture, jewelry, papyri, and more. Hieroglyphic writing is usually represented as images representing sounds as well as ideas and actions and was used from late prehistory...... middle of paper ......Parsons , M. (no year). The History of Ancient Egyptian Writing. Accessed November 10, 2013, from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/writing.htmScience Museum of Minnesota (2013). Cuneiform collection. Accessed November 12, 2013 from http://www.smm.org/anthropology/cuneiform Leick, G. (2007).The Babylonian world. New York and London: Routledge. The British Museum (no year). Ancient Egyptian writing. Retrieved November 10, 2013 from http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/home.htmlThe British Museum (no year). The development of writing. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://www,mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/sto_set.html/The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (no year). Ancient Mesopotamia: the invention of writing. Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/writing.html