So whomever brought it up, it looks like humans favor a similar evolution of symbols and then incrementally evolve into pictorial or phonetic. I suspect that like most things, the mark-making process like the language speaking process evolves out of efficiency – laziness. lol
So just as humans speak language humans can speak, humans draw characters humans can draw. Just as language evolves from harsh clear sounds to lazy songs (chinese), writing evolves from infrequent symbols, to that which we can write quickly.
Chinese Jiahu symbols c. 6600 BC
European Vin?a Symbols c5300 BC
European Dispillo Symbols c5000 BC
Egyptian Hieroglyphic c. 3500 BCE – 400 CE
Ur’s Proto-Cuneiform c3500
Sumerian Cuneiform c. 3200 BC
Heiratic (egyptian) c. 2900
Cretan Hieroglyphic c. 2100 – 1700 BC
Linear A c. 2500 – 1450 BC
Linear B c. 1450 – 1200 BC
Phoenician c. 1200–150 BC
China c. 1200 BC.
Mesoamerica c. 600 BC
Germanic c. 500 AD??
Slavonic c. 900 AD??