page_title: Proto-writing
section_title: African Iron Age
hierarchical_section_title: Proto-writing / Later proto-writing / African Iron Age
caption_attribution_description: English: An nsibidi character for "welcome" as recorded by Elphinstone Dayrell.
context_page_description: Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC. They used ideographic or early mnemonic symbols or both to represent a limited number of concepts, in contrast to true writing systems, which record the language of the writer.
context_section_description: Nsibidi is a system of symbols indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria. While there remains no commonly accepted exact date of origin, most researchers agree that use of the earliest symbols date back between the 5th and 15th centuries. There are thousands of Nsibidi symbols which were used on anything from calabashes to tattoos and to wall designs. Nsibidi is used for the Ekoid and Igboid languages, and the Aro people are known to write Nsibidi messages on the bodies of their messengers.
caption: Nsibidi character for "welcome"
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