# What did people write down first?

**What did people first need to write down?**

Early writing was often about grain, goods and debts. How it grew from counting into stories, laws and letters is a question about what a society wants to keep.

Connects to:
- [Writing](https://mapideas.org/i/hi_writing)
- [How numbers travelled](https://mapideas.org/i/hi_numbers)

Sources:
- [Wikipedia: History of writing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing)

Source: https://mapideas.org/i/q_hist_write · open on the map: https://mapideas.org/#q_hist_write