CROSSWORDS: History. Milestones and Media

Highlights | Antiquity | 1400s-1700s | 1800s | References

sator
"SATOR Word Square"
by CrosswordMan is
licensed under CC BY 2.0

Highlights

  • Many pre-requisite "enabling technologies": written language, paper, publishing, ...
  • Spoiler alert: most credit Arthur Wynne (1913)
    for constructing and popularizing "the first" modern "crossword" puzzle
  • There were similar precursors through the ages that were not developed or distributed further.
  • Later innovators helped the crossword evolve and remain interesting.
  • 79: SATOR square [Roman Empire]
  • 140: Paper [China]
  • 1605: Newspapers [Germany]
  • 1862: Our Young Folks: uses term "cross word puzzle" [US]
  • 1890: Airoldi's "Per passare il tempo" (4 x 4 word grid) [Italy]

Antiquity

  • ??: Writing: independently developed in at least four ancient civilizations:
    Mesopotamia (between 3400 and 3100 BC), Egypt (around 3250 BC),
    China (1200 BC), and lowland areas of Southern Mexico and Guatemala (by 500 BC)
  • 510 Phaistos Disc A
    Phaistos Disc, Side A, as displayed
    in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum
    Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
    International     license; from Wikimedia Commons

    1800-1600 BCE: Phaistos Disc clay movable type

  • 1150 BCE: 'Crossword Stela' of Paser, a 20th Dynasty Egyptian limestone stele, constructed by Paser,
    during the reign of Ramesses VI. Three different hymns to the goddess Mut are to be read
    horizontally, vertically and around its perimeter. An early rebus
  • 1st Millenium BCE: alphabetical acrostic (or abecedarius).
    "In the Hebrew version of Psalm 119, each subsection of eight verses is named
    after the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, 'Aleph', 'Beth', etc. -- Acrostics prove
    that the texts in question were originally composed in writing, rather than having
    existed in oral tradition before being put into writing."
  • 169 BCE: an acrostic poem by Quintus Ennius
    the first letters of each line spelled out, 'Quae Q. Ennius fecit' (Q. Ennius wrote this).
  • ??: Ancient crossword puzzle found on Izmir (Smyrna) agora wall
    The puzzle contains top-to-bottom and left-to-right Greek words and looks like an acrostic
    with the same words defined running in both directions top to bottom and left to right in five columns.
    it was difficult to draw any meaning from the puzzle. "There are meaningless names, too.
    Like some researchers say, it may be a reference to the Christian group."
    The word found at the center of the puzzle is LOGOS; 10/12/2016
  • sator
    Sator Square, Oppede, France
    via Wikimedia Commons
    is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

    < LXXIX (79): Sator Square or 'Rotas', in Pompeii and elsewhere;
    Latin 4-way palindrome word square

  • SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS
    -- read from left or right, or from top or bottom.
  • = "The sower [farmer], Arepo, guides the wheels [plough] with care."
    or "Arepo, the sower, watches over his works."
  • The ancient palindrome that explains Christopher Nolan's Tenet
    A puzzle dug up all over Europe holds the key to Tenet -- and turns it into more than a movie;
    Sator: last name of Kenneth Branagh's character;
    Arepo: last name of an unseen Spanish art forger;
    Tenet: (the movie)
    Opera: 1st scene is in an opera house
    Rotas: name of security company; Vox; 9/4/2020
  • Christian significance
  • "The World's Worst Crossword" -- all Roman numerals
  • Romans used a chisel -- not ink! ~Steve
  • 140: Paper China. display device and strorage medium
  • The Long and Complex History of Paper 4/20/2019
  • 381 Gutenberg press
    Peter Small demonstrating the use of the Gutenberg
    press at the International Printing Museum
    Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
    license; from Wikimedia Commons

    300: Moschion stele -- part crossword, part cryptogram, and part word seek.
    In the stele, Moschion, an Egyptian, is honoring Osiris (Egyptian god of the underworld) with this monument,
    which contains words and messages that can be read in different directions. One message on the stele is
    "Moschion to Osiris, for the treatment which cured his foot." In other words, a thank-you note!
    ~Penny Dell Puzzles; Proclaiming it to Greeks and Natives, along the rows of the chequer­board

1400s-1700s

Webster dictionary
Title page of the 1828 1st edition of the American Dictionary of
the English Language featuring an engraving of Noah Webster
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
license; from Wikimedia Commons

1800s

References