Must have been dull as crap. Nothing to do at night but sit around a camp fire and speculate about what kind of bug bears were out there, planning to have you and your tribe as the main course at the next chow down.

Hell now I’m going to have night mares about fending off sabre tooth tigers, giganta boas and King Kong.

@Dutchess_III Who was writing what; that they couldn’t read ? ? ?

Searching for food, taking advantage of the weak, fighting, sex, and talking story.

14% of humans still cannot read.

They slept at night and hunted for or prepared food during the day, when they weren’t reproducing (pc version).

They were reading. Just not reading written words.

They were reading animal signs, weather conditions, position of stars, behavior of the elements, daily and seasonal rhythms, human expressions and gestures, and man-made markers and symbols that evolved into writing eventually. Not to mention omens in the flights of birds, arrangements of clouds, sacrificial animals, and so on, and the effects of rituals meant to reveal messages from the gods.

There was plenty to attend to and interpret before the ABCs came along.

@Dutchess_III What do you think life was like before humans figured out how to read?

It’s likely that being unable to read went largely unnoticed until they figured out how to write.

Legends. Oral histories. They retold (verbally) the heroic deeds of the tribe or clan.

There was all sorts of history being retold, but verbally – not written. Culture existed, but was transmitted differently.

As my old Pappy would have said, What – No comic books? I’m outta this Era!

Native Hawaiians had no written language before Captain Cook’s finding the islands; they had petroglyph symbols. which told stories but not a written conversation.

Talking to each other. Passing down stories and skills. Harder days of labor and more restful sleep if they felt safe.

When I was very young and the family would go and stay with the grandparents, I would crawl in bed with my grandmother every morning. She would tell me a different fairytale every day that she just made up out of the blue. It was magical.

Nice!

You might be interested in reading about the Oral Torah.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Torah

Below gives a simple example of why the Oral Torah (Why oral communication) is important.

https://www.aish.com/h/sh/tat/48969576.html?mobile=yes

Well, yeah. That how all the Bible stories got handed down.

In many instances, only the rich and privileged were taught to read. The printed word was put down on paper by scribes before the advent of the printing press, so books were not numerous, much less easily had.

Like kindergarten. Or before. If anyone remembers.

I think talk came first, print and then reading? I think your perception if we didn’t have reading we wouldn’t have learnt at thing, if talk and trade was back then think about where was translation?

Time was spent observing one’s surroundings, animal, vegetable, mineral and other. These observations were passed on generation to generation, many times around the fire or hearth. As human family groups began accumulating things like grain or cattle. Interestingly, “A”, the first letter of the alphabet, seems to have evolved from an ancient Phoenician symbol meaning “ox”.

I have an old dictionary that my mom won when I was about 12. It’s so cool. Among other things, at the back of it, it shows the evolution of our modern English alphabet. That book really inspired me in so many ways. It inspired my love of linguistics.
The dictionary being presented to u s. I’m the tall dweeb in the glasses.

Nice pic… @ Dutchess_III

I went through a goofy geek stage. I had glasses and braces and it made me extremely self conscious.
Dad used to tell me “Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses.
About my braces he’d say he was gonna plug me in and I could be the Christmss tree!
Exasperated I asked why he was saying these things. He said I might get teased about it and he just wanted me to get used to it.
BTW…boys definitely DO make passes at girls who wear glasses!
And I didn’t light up when I was plugged in. I just got shocked. ~

Damn… I hope you’re just kidding….tell me you’re just kidding.

No. He really did! But he wasn’t trying to hurt me, and he didn’t hurt me. I was secure in his love for me.

Cool I’m happy to hear that. I was worried there for a few. : )

And it’s true that boys make massive passes at girls who wear glasses. (That could be a Country and Western song….)
However, I never plugged myself into anything.

Good sense you have / had. Never Ever put yourself in an iffy situation.

HOW WOULD I PLUG MYSELF IN TO ANYTHING????

Oh never mind, got your answer out of context. Duh.. my name’s Tim, I’m smart. Or maybe not.

That makes two folks I have unintentionally offended in here. Hell I’m on a roll.