Make a top 10 of something

Sorry to break the news, but Aretha Franklin died two years ago.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T the dead.  

Top Ten favorite inventors:

1. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
2. Orville (1871-1948) & Wilbur (1867-1912) Wright
3. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
4. Archimedes (287 BC - 212 BC)
5. Ben Franklin (1706-1790)
6. Hero(n) of Alexandria (10 AD - 70 AD)
7. Imhotep (27th century BC)
8. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
9. Avicenna (980-1037)
10. Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468)

HM: The ancient human who invented the wheel; the first person to think of cooking food (there has to be a great story behind that); the first guy on the Eurasian steppe who looked at a horse and instead of killing and eating it (as was surely the custom) thought, "What if I sit on it?"

A special shoutout to women inventors throughout history who have been forgotten/deliberately written out of history. Did you know a woman invented the windshield wiper? She never saw a dime off her patent.

The answer probably lies therein.  The moment people began building a true civilization, wherever they were on the globe, writing was a byproduct of the need for organization.  Organized religion, animal husbandry, farming; organizing people and creating more than you actually need inevitably requires a way to keep track of said resources and remind others to follow the rules you've created for this organization to function properly hence, I think, the creation of writing and arithmetic.  People have been painting representations of things on cave walls for much longer, but writing conveys specific ideas intended for dissemination.  You only do that when you need to remember some important information-- that isn't some form of physical training you can just show someone how to do-- and make sure someone else understands it.     

Glad to see Gigliola Cinquetti has fallen down your top 10 from 1 to 10!

I would have Dianna Ross and Olivia Newton John on that list

Um, punk rock???