Early Forms of Communication
Lesson preview: the Mini Lesson and Vocabulary are open to everyone. Guided practice, exercises, the parent checklist and the printable PDF worksheet come with full access (free 7-day trial or membership).
What you will learn
- 1Name the five major milestones in human communication
- 2Place the five milestones in chronological order from oldest to newest
- 3Explain the problem each new breakthrough solved
Mini Lesson
One of the most human things we do is communicate — sharing our thoughts, stories, warnings, and discoveries with one another. The history of communication is a story of brilliant problem-solving, stretching from prehistoric caves to the global internet we use today.
1. Cave drawings (prehistoric — 40,000+ years ago)
- The oldest form of human communication we can still see today, painted onto cave walls using natural pigments made from earth, charcoal, and animal fat.
- Depicted animals, hunting scenes, and hand prints — messages left for others about the world around them.
- Famous examples: Lascaux Cave in France, Altamira Cave in Spain.
2. Writing systems (around 3500 BC)
- The Sumerians of Mesopotamia developed one of the earliest writing systems — cuneiform — pressing wedge-shaped marks into clay tablets to record trade, laws, and stories.
- Ancient Egypt developed hieroglyphs — picture-symbols written on papyrus scrolls and stone.
- Writing allowed people to communicate across distances and preserve ideas for future generations for the first time.
3. The printing press (~1450)
- Johannes Gutenberg's movable-type printing press meant books could be produced quickly and cheaply for the first time in Europe.
- Before the press, books had to be copied by hand — only the very wealthy or the church could afford them.
- After the press, ideas spread across Europe within weeks instead of years.
4. The telephone (1876)
- Alexander Graham Bell's telephone allowed a human voice to travel as an electrical signal through a wire — for the first time, people could have a real-time spoken conversation with someone far away.
- Within decades, telephone networks linked homes, cities, and eventually countries.
5. The internet (1990s onward)
- Developed from military research networks in the 1960s, the internet became available to the public in the early 1990s with the creation of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee.
- The internet connects billions of people instantly — email, video calls, social media, and search engines all depend on it.
- It is the fastest and most far-reaching communication breakthrough in all of human history.
Words to know
Communication
The sharing of thoughts, information, or ideas between people
e.g. Writing, speech, and the internet are all forms of communication.
Cave drawings
Prehistoric pictures painted on cave walls using natural pigments
e.g. Cave drawings in Lascaux are over 17,000 years old.
Cuneiform
An early writing system of wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay tablets
e.g. The Sumerians used cuneiform to record trade and laws.
Hieroglyphs
Ancient Egyptian picture-symbols written on papyrus and stone
e.g. Hieroglyphs can still be seen on temple walls today.
Printing press
A machine invented by Gutenberg that printed books quickly and cheaply using movable type
e.g. The printing press spread new ideas across Europe.
World Wide Web
A system of linked pages on the internet, created by Tim Berners-Lee in the early 1990s
e.g. The World Wide Web lets us read news from anywhere in the world.
Ask yourself: "Why was each new form of communication a breakthrough? What problem did it solve that the previous one could not?"
Unlock the full HSEA system for 7 days.
Add your first kid profile and your 7 days start: every lesson in every grade, saved progress for each child. Nothing to set up, no card required, nothing to cancel.
- ✓ All 1,880 lessons, Grades 1–6, every subject
- ✓ Profiles + saved progress for every kid
- ✓ Printable lessons with answer key