Writing

Why is it such a big deal?

Ancient Egyptians believed that a person could not achieve immortality if his or her name was not spoken or inscribed somewhere forever.

The removal of the name and image of a dead person served a dual purpose. It “rewrote” history and was an assault upon the spirit of the deceased.

If all memory of a dead person was lost or destroyed, the spirit would also perish.

Why did we begin writing? Keep records

Communicate with the gods

Tool for elite to justify their rule over the common, illiterate people

Where did writing begin? Writing was invented independently in

Mesopotamia, China, and Mesoamerica. Many experts believe that it was also invented independently in Egypt and the Indus civilization.

Invented Independently… What does that mean?

This means that writing did not begin at only one place and then diffuse or spread to other locations

People in Mesopotamia, China, and Mesoamerica (and possibly Egypt and Indus) did not get the idea for writing from somewhere else. They invented writing all by themselves.

When did writing begin?

Recent discoveries indicate writing began in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Indus between 3500-3100 BCE.

Cuneiform in Mesopotamia Pictograms, or drawings

representing actual things, were the basis for cuneiform writing.

Through repeated use over time they began to look simpler and more abstract.

These marks eventually became wedge-shaped and could represent sounds or abstract concepts.

Hieroglyphics in Egypt

Hieroglyphs were a style of pictographic writing based on sounds as well as symbols for things and ideas.

Deciphering Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs were used for

formal occasions, such as writing on tombs and religious texts.

Demotic was used for everyday writings.

Over time hieroglyphs were replaced with the Greek alphabet.

The meaning of the hieroglyphs had been lost for the last 1500 years.

So how can we read hieroglyphs?

French soldiers discovered the Rosetta Stone while they were rebuilding a fort in Egypt in 1799.

It had writing in two languages (Egyptian and Greek) and three scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek).

Jean-Francois Champollion was finally able to decipher the hieroglyphs in 1822.

The Rosetta Stone is a text written by a group of priests in Egypt in 196 BCE to honor the Egyptian pharaoh. It lists all the things that the pharaoh had done for the good of Egypt.

Writing in China The earliest form of

Chinese writing has been found etched onto turtle shells and animal bones called “oracle bones.” Oracle bones were used to ask the gods questions and have been dated between 1500-1000 BCE.

Writing in Mesoamerica An ancient stone tablet recently discovered in

Mexico may date writing in Mesoamerica to around 900 BCE.

Mesoamerican Hieroglyphs Mesoamerican writing

is intricate and pictorial.

Often called hieroglyphic.

Probably began with the Olmec civilization.

Indus Writing First known examples of

writing in the Indus Valley were recently discovered in Harappa, a major urban center in the Indus civilization.

The writing is described as ‘trident-shaped’ and has not been deciphered.

The Harappan language died out and did not form the basis of other languages.

Indus Seals

Phoenician Alphabet-A connection to today A writing system

developed by 1000 BCE using symbols to represent sounds

Phonetic-one sign for one sound, 22 signs total

“Alphabet”-comes from first two letters of Phoenician alphabet: “aleph” and “beth”

Introduced by Phoenician sailors and merchants to trading partners in the Mediterranean including the Greeks

The Romans picked it up from the Greeks

The Romans picked it up from the Greeks. Many languages were derived from the Latin used by the Romans.

Major Languages of the World