Comma Drama

BEFORE THERE WAS PUNCTUATION, words didn’t even have spaces between them. Wordsallrantogetherlikethis, in what was called scriptura continua. Spaces and punctuation marks emerged as cues for those trying to read other early documents aloud. The Mesha Stele, created about 840 B.C., is the oldest known example of punctuation. It sings the praises of King Mesha of Moab (in today’s Jordan), using dots between words and slashes to separate sections.