[Moose Burger]

I guess pictogram decoders were the literate people of that time.

[Joe 6-pack]

I think SunkenCiv summarized it quite well in #8...I don't think any single person, or even coterie sat down and "invented" an alphabet...what we know of cuneiform is that it started out as a means of record keeping, and as it's utility to share information became apparent, words and sounds became codified over time.

I kind of like the way it was described in the movie "13th Warrior" (based on Michael Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead"). The Viking Chief asks the moslem poet to show him how he "draws sounds".