AN archaeologist has found what could be the earliest known writing by mankind - records of linen and oil deliveries made about 5300 years ago during the reign of a king named Scorpion in southern Egypt.

The discovery throws open for debate a widely held belief among historians that the first people to write were the Sumerians of the Mesopotamian civilisation sometime before 3000 BC, or 5000 years ago.

While the exact date of Sumerian writing remains in doubt, the Egyptian discoveries are carbon dated with certainty to between 3300BC and 3200BC, Gunter Dreyer, head of the German Archaeological Institute, said.

The writings, in the form of line drawings of animals, plants, and mountains, are the first evidence that hieroglyphics used by later-day Pharaonic dynasties did not ''rise as Phoenix from the ashes'' but developed gradually, Dreyer said.

''Linguists now have a larger history (of writing) to regard,'' he said.

An American archaeologist called it an ''exciting'' find.

''This would be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of writing and ancient Egyptian culture,'' Kent Weeks, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, said.