Writing (Civ7)

Writing
Technology of the Antiquity Age
Introduced in Civilization VII
Cost	125
Technologies
Required	Pottery
Required	Pottery
Leads to	Currency   Bronze Working
Leads to	Currency   Bronze Working
Unlocks
Infrastructure	Library Great Stele
Mastery unlocks
Endeavor	Steal Technological Advancement
Mastery notes
+1 Science on Science buildings. Gain 1 Codex.

Back to List of technologies in Civ7

 "The spoken word conquers all thought, but the written word commands it."
– Walter Benjamin

Writing is an Antiquity Age technology in Civilization VII.

Strategy

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Civilopedia entry

Writing holds power. Transmitting words from the mind of an unseen author to another is an act of magic – at least to those who do not understand writing’s secrets. Words link two people across time. Currently, I am a game writer in a studio putting these words down, but to you, now playing the game, that may have been years ago. Hello! For a moment, we are in conversation.

Writing can consist of symbols that represent distinct sounds, or they may be images that depict whole ideas. Different forms of writing developed independently at several points in human history, often building on the available materials commonly used at the time. Writing may be carved in stone, pressed into clay, or painted onto paper – using any materials that survive long enough to convey the information.

The very earliest possible writings were a series of dots on images of animals found in cave paintings, which may indicate the seasons they were hunted or act as a system of counting. Elsewhere, systems of symbols used to convey particular information (not fully linked to a full language) emerged in China in the seventh millennium BCE and in Europe and the Indus River valley in the sixth. The earliest true writing came about in Sumeria during the fourth millennium BCE, where the habit of pressing reeds into clay brought about cuneiform, used by Babylonians and Akkadians in later years. Cuneiform may also have influenced Egyptian hieroglyphs, which arose shortly afterward.

Whereas Mesopotamian writing originated in ledgers and merchants’ accounting books (or in this case, tablets), Chinese writing was linked to divination – markers on oracle bones in the Shang dynasty (circa 1200 BCE). In the Americas, writing developed independently in the last few centuries BCE, and grew into the complicated Mayan script.

See also

• Writing in other games