Ancient people have seemingly possessed outstanding memory, if compared with modern individuals. They only had to hear some information once in order to understand and remember it.
The need of recording the heard information occurred much later due to the people losing those unique memory features, which used to allow them to quickly memorize any data.
Thus appeared rock carvings, which would be later improved to become an alphabet. With the letters forming syllables, words, phrases, and sentences, the earliest alphabets have become the first means to record information with.
To be fair, all this sounds like a legend. But if one would think about it, it is quite possible that the mental abilities of the human race at one point began to deteriorate. And actually, that worsening has probably occurred because of the development of writing. Before, when people didn’t have the tools and means to preserve information with, they could only rely on their memory.
Not only began humans to memorize events and data worse, the development of modern electronic devices deepened the issue even further. All those smartphones and computers make the life so much easier that there is no need to push the mind as far as before. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The development of the Armenian alphabet was one of the steps in “memory degradation”, at least for Armenians. Its origins are extremely debatable. Everyone has his own theories and opinions. We also have some articles on the topic, although they are based on research rather than speculations.
Some of the most quality info in regard to the Armenian alphabet is delivered by Artak Movsisyan’s “From rock carvings to an alphabet” documentary. What a pity that such a piece has only a couple of hundreds of views on YouTube! Would be great if it had some English subtitles as well.
«ԺԱՅՌԱՊԱՏԿԵՐՆԵՐԻՑ ՄԻՆՉԵՎ ԱՅԲՈՒԲԵՆ» (Մաս I) With English subtitles
«ԺԱՅՌԱՊԱՏԿԵՐՆԵՐԻՑ ՄԻՆՉԵՎ ԱՅԲՈՒԲԵՆ» (Մաս II) With English subtitles
«ԺԱՅՌԱՊԱՏԿԵՐՆԵՐԻՑ ՄԻՆՉԵՎ ԱՅԲՈՒԲԵՆ» (Մաս III) With English subtitles
