Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, modern-day southern Iraq, during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages, and one of the first civilizations in the world along with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers were able to grow an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus of which enabled them to settle in one place. Prehistoric proto-writing dates back before 3000 BC. The earliest texts, from c. 3300 BC, come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr; early cuneiform script emerged around 3000 BC.
Chinese calligraphy
Oracle bone script was one of the forms of Chinese character written on animals bones. Written on oracle bones – animal bones or turtle plastrons, it is the earliest known form of Chinese writing. The first appearance of what we recognize unequivocally to refer as “oracle bone inscriptions” comes in the form of inscribed ox scapula and turtle plastrons from sites near modern Anyang (安阳) on the northern border of Henan province. The vast majority were found at the Yinxu site (in modern Anyang, Henan Province). They record pyromantic divinations of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty, beginning with Wu Ding, whose accession is dated by different scholars at 1250 BC or 1200 BC. Even though there is no proof that the Shang dynasty were solely responsible for the origin of writing in China, but neither is there evidence of recognizable Chinese writing from any earlier time or any other place. The late Shang oracle bone writings constitute the earliest significant corpus of Chinese writing and it is also the oldest known member and ancestor of the Chinese family of scripts, preceding the Chinese bronze inscriptions.