funerary stele, greece, 459 bc (literate cultures)

there is oral culture and literate culture. 

You can see that they're both marks, one oral and one graphic. The alphabet developed culture, which helped the propagation of myths, which provided social cohesion, and technology, i.e., developments in navigation, astronomy, geometry, etc.

The shift from spoken to written text is fundamental in the development of science and technology.