From a Calligrapher's Pen Trivia Quiz

Answer: Oracle bones

Writing is a form of communication that involves placing meaningful marks of various kinds onto a surface in order to create letters and words usually in the language of the user. Before the everyday use of applying words or pictures onto a surface with an implement containing ink, lead, chalk etc came into being, surfaces had information carved into them instead in many cases.

These made their messages and information more durable over time, but created a lot more work in order to convey their intent. Found at China's largest archaeological site, Yingxu, in 1899, and dating back to the 2nd century BCE, carved inscriptions on oracle bones have been classed as the oldest form of Chinese writing.

Answer: Stylus

Ancient Sumerians used a form of writing known as cuneiform. This dates back to the 4th millennium BC. Cuneiform writing was achieved by pressing a triangular shaped instrument called a stylus onto damp clay tablets to convey the necessary information.

This gave all their words and letters the famous wedge shape for which this writing is famous. The word cuneiform itself translates to "wedge-shaped". To the everlasting joy of historians everywhere, these tablets were then baked in a kiln to preserve them for posterity.

More than two million of these have been unearthed by archaeologists, but only some 100,000 have been translated and published.

Answer: Minoan Crete

Various other ancient cultures also communicated with one another via inscribed clay tablets as well. Most of the writers, however, did not go the extra step of baking the tablets to preserve the messages for future reference, so they are lost to us today.

The ancient Minoans of Crete are included in this group, but with one notable exception. Many of their ancient messages inscribed on clay tablets were accidentally baked and preserved for the delight of future scholars by a catastrophic series of fire which swept through that nation. Even today, scientists are unsure of the cause of this inferno or the exact dates of its occurrence. All they know for certain is that most of the palaces, towns and villages in the centre and the east of Crete were obliterated by a series of these concurrently occurring blazes.

The Linear A inscriptions on those much later unearthed baked clay tablets spanned a time period of some 2,000 years.

Answer: Roman

Tablets were also used for recording various parts of life in Ancient Rome, or for sending messages and the like, but unlike the clay tablets used by other societies, Roman tablets were made of wax. The tablets could then be re-used if desired, simply by rubbing over the surfaces until the writing was removed and the surface was smooth once again.

Answer: Chalk

Chalk has very many uses, and this has been the case for man for thousands of years. When it was originally mined in England though, it wasn't the large deposits of this substance that stone age man was seeking, but the outcrops of flint nodules that were found embedded within it. That was used for their tools. Examples of this type of mining can be found in the fascinating Grime's Caves in Norfolk, England.

It would be very many centuries before chalk was used as a writing material in schools, however. Mainly because public education itself was a relatively new concept in the history of mankind.

Although handheld slates had been used for some time for children to write upon with chalk or slate pencils, it wasn't until the late 18th century that the famous blackboards, made of slate, began to appear on schoolroom walls. Today's blackboard chalk sticks are no longer made of chalk, but of gypsum instead. Did you know that toothpaste contains small amounts of chalk?

Answer: Roman

The styli the Romans used to write on their tablets were not made from reeds as were those used, for example, by the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians, but from lead instead. Rome's huge empire spread over a vast area of the known world. As a result, they were the greatest producers of lead during the peak of their civilisation.

Instead of mining directly for the product, however, this was mostly obtained as a by-product of silver mining. Romans used this lead for any product they could think of - water pipes, pharmaceuticals, money, roofing, and weapons just to name a few.

The lead manufactured styli used by ancient Romans were found to leave legible dark marks on parchment, papyrus and wood, instead of having to carve these into wax. This rather miraculous method of writing took off like the introduction of computers in our modern age - and the early lead pencil was born.

Answer: French

Today's pencils are long thin pieces of graphite contained within a protective covering of wood. As the graphite wears away with use, the wood surrounding it has to be pared away to allow more graphite to appear. This paring was once done with a penknife and was a rather tricky and dangerous business, as small pieces of wood could fly unexpectedly all over the room - straight into an astonished eyeball.

In 1828, a French mathematician, Bernard Lassimonne, created and applied for a patent for a compact and much safer pencil sharpener, but this went nowhere, and it wouldn't be for another twenty years that another Frenchman, Thierry des Estivaux, came up with the design of the familiar pencil sharpener we know today.

Answer: Inkwell

A dip pen was a wooden handled pen with a curved metal nib which held a small amount of ink when dipped into an inkwell. There was no other reservoir of ink other than that held in the small nib, and writing with one involved dipping it in and out of the inkwell at regular intervals as the ink on the nib ran out. Early attempts at designing a similar pen date right back to the beginning of the first century AD, with follow up attempts made during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well. By the early 1800s, England was producing dip pens in their thousands once the machines were invented to cut the fine metal nibs required for each one.

The lidded glass container used to hold the ink needed for these pens was known as an inkwell, and many old desks, particularly school desks from days gone by, can be seen with a round hole cut out of the top right hand side in order to hold these inkwells. Both dip pens and the later fountain pens were eventually put out of business by the Hungarian Laszlo Biro's 1938 invention of the ballpoint pen. That of course was an amazing invention on its own.

Answer: Bread

Before rubber and bread erasers were invented, small hard clumps of wax were used to remove charcoal marks of writing from the various surfaces on which they were inscribed. With parchment and papyrus, small bits of pumice stone or sandstone did the trick there. Crustless bread was used for years as well and actually did a very satisfactory job at erasing errors.

The only trouble with that was keeping up a readily available supply, as this couldn't be used more than once. In 1770, an English engineer named Edward Nairne invented the rubber eraser. Prior to his discovery, pieces of natural gum elastic had been looked upon as a novelty item by society, but, according to Nairne, he accidentally picked up a piece of natural rubber one day instead of a piece of bread, in order to erase an error in his written work.

Answer: Quill

A quill was a writing implement that was used right throughout the western world for more than thirteen centuries (600-1900). It was made from the feather of a large bird such as a swan, goose or turkey, the end of which had been cut and shaped into a nib. Goose feathers were the implement of choice for the majority of people, but occasionally, and just for show more than anything else, peacock feather quills were used by the wealthier.

When dipped into ink, the capillary action of the quill nib drew a certain amount of ink into it, and this lasted for several words before having to be dipped into ink again. Quills were ideal for writing on parchment or vellum and for that reason, they were, and are, a calligrapher's delight.

They possess the ability to draw both very fine lines or thicker strokes and swirls.

After the introduction of wooden and metal tipped dip pens, the use of quill pens slowly began to decline, but they are still used today for traditional purposes. The U.S. Supreme Court, for example, places twenty goose quill pens on the tables used by lawyers each day that the Court is in session. Calligraphers will still occasionally use quills even in the modern age as well, but sadly, because paper is made from wood pulp, unlike the softer materials once used in parchments and vellum, the quill nib is worn down a lot faster.