[Jedi Master Pikachu]

That is the conventional view (that the oldest writing systems were pictographic and ideograms). However, the mainstream view is that Sumerian cuneiform (also used characters) is the oldest written language, followed by Egyptian hieroglyphs (also pictographic).

The four 'independent' writing systems to have sprung up around the world (not including what is considered proto-writing) are: Sumerian cuneiform; Egyptian hieroglyphs; Chinese characters; and Mesoamerican glyphs. The other writing systems (including alphabets and other phonetic writing systems) are supposed to be descended from these scripts. Today, Sumerian cuneiform and Mesoamerican glyphs and their potential derivatives have been all but wiped out. The most prolific is Egyptian hieroglyphs, from which the Greek, Latin, Cyrillic alphabets came from, along with the writings of southwestern Asia (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.), south Asia, and southeast Asia. Even Korean Hangul could be descended from Egyptian rather than the writing of much closer China.

The second survivor is Chinese, which a smaller circulation than the Egyptian descendants, but still large (the PRC alone has some 1.3 billion people, most of them literate, and Japan, Korea, and other Asian nations with phonetic scripts still supplement their language with Chinese characters).

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Sumerian cuneiform. Looks new (opinion).

Egyptian hieroglyphs. Cursive style.

Chinese characters next to pictures

Mayan glyphs. One of several Mesoamerican writing systems.

The pictures are distorted so that the post looks pretty (which it SHOULD if the preview pans out--the Mayan might be bumped up a little).

Anyway, here goes....