The Birth of Writing

FOH 7 and Podony and McGee, The Ancient Near Eastern World

Before we can talk about the birth of WRITING, we need to consider two other important means of conveying information in ancient societies of the Fertile Crescent:

• SPOKEN LANGUAGE•METHODS OF RECORD-KEEPING

Languages spoken in ancient times in the Fertile Crescent?

In Mesopotamia?

In Mesopotamia:

- Sumerian- Akkadian

Relationship to other languages?(language family?)

In Mesopotamia:

- Sumerian- Akkadian

Relationship to other languages?part of the Semitic family of languages

The Semitic language family tree

Where were these languages spoken?

So keep in mind that the basis for creating other ways of communicating is the fact that people living in the Fertile Crescent werealready using spoken language and living in a context marked by significant linguistic and cultural diversity.

Before they had an actual system of writing, people in the ancient Fertile Crescent (specifically Mesopotamia) had

METHODS OF RECORD-KEEPING.

When and why did they need methods of record-keeping?

From c. 8000 BCE on…

From c. 8000 BCE on,with the discovery and spread of AGRICULTUREthey had…

From c. 8000 BCE on,with the discovery and spread of AGRICULTUREthey had SURPLUS which they treated asPRIVATE PROPERTY…

From c. 8000 BCE on,with the discovery and spread of AGRICULTUREthey had SURPLUS which they treated asPRIVATE PROPERTY – so they needed ways to keep track of what they had, and to communicate what they wanted when they conducted trade, especially through a middleman (servant, child, caravan driver…).

Early methods of record-keeping?

[See charts filled out in class.]

Over time, what drives these changes in methods of record-keeping?

Over time, what drives these changes in methods of record-keeping?

- Effort to keep track of tokens and goods- Effort to create a reliable and easy-to-consult record of the transaction- Desire to communicate more information clearly (perhaps by use of shared symbols)

actual WRITING systems?

- What makes them different from mere methods of record-keeping?

- When do historians think they developed in Mesopotamia?

actual WRITING systems

- when people started using reed pens (instead of tokens) to draw on tablets of clay -- representing words/things/ideas instead of imprinting tokens on clay

Podony & McGee: Butler:c. 3200 BCE c. 3500-3000 BCE

STAGES in the development of WRITING SYSTEMS

Podony & McGee: Butler:

- pictograms - pictographs- [ideo-grams] - ideographs- syllabaries - rebus writing

- concrete sign- abstract sign

- phonetic alphabet

Podony & McGee

c. 3200 BCE pictograms

a concrete sign stands for the thing itlooks like(nouns only)

= bread

Podony & McGee

c. 3200 – 3000 BCE pictograms gradually come to stand for related

ideas (“ideo-grams?”) a concrete sign stands for the thing it

looks like ORa similar verb oradjective

= bread OR to bake OR baked

Podony & McGee

c. 3000 BCE syllabaries developa sign stands for the SOUND of a syllable

or a word

= ‘ti’ which can mean arrow OR life OR to take

Podony & McGee

c. 3000 BCE syllabaries developa sign stands for the SOUND of a syllable

or a wordat first, signs areconcrete (look like recognizable things

= ‘ti’ (arrow, life, to take,or just the sound ‘ti’)

Podony & McGeec. 3000 BCE syllabaries develop

a sign stands for the SOUND of a syllable or a wordat first, signs are concrete (look like recognizable things)

= ‘ti’ (arrow, life, to take, sound ‘ti’)

c. 3000 – 700 BCEbut over time, signs become more abstract

(less and less recognizable)

ѱ ῳ W = ‘ta’ (wheat) ‘ta’ (wheat, joy, to buy) ‘ta’ (sound)

Podony & McGee

Examples of syllabaries?

Podony & McGee

Examples of syllabaries:

- cuneiform (in Mesopotamia elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent)

- hieroglyphics (in Egypt)

STAGES in the development of WRITING SYSTEMS

Podony & McGee: Butler:

- pictograms (3200 BCE) - pictographs (3500 BCE)- [ideo-grams] - ideographs (3000 BCE) - syllabaries (3000 BCE) - rebus

- concrete sign writing (2100 BCE)- abstract sign

--------------------------------------------------------------------- - phonetic alphabet(c. 1000 BCE)

Difference between a syllabary and a phonetic alphabet?

Syllabary vs. phonetic alphabet

- How many signs (symbols) have to be learnedhundreds vs. twenty-some

li Lmi Mni Nse Isi E

Learning to read/write in the ancient Near East

- Who?- Where?- What kinds of work?

What if you couldn’t read/write?

Once actual WRITING SYSTEMS were developed, what kinds of things were people able to do thanks to writing that they could not have done previously?

SPOKEN LANGUAGEAGRICULTURE SURPLUS (private property)

METHODS OF RECORD-KEEPING

ACTUAL WRITING SYSTEMS, with different stages over time

kind of sign and what it stands for