How did people write before hieroglyphics

Human beings, in their modern form, have been around for nearly 200,000 years, and most scholars believe that the use of language dates back at least that far. For most of this time language was oral only, as it still is in some isolated cultures; writing developed only very late, around 3500 B.C., when the Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed cuneiform writing, which utilized wedge-like marks (Latin cuneus means “wedge”) on clay tablets. Egyptian hieroglyphs developed soon thereafter, coming into use sometime before 3000 B.C.