Download Invention of Writing Qs

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The Invention of Writing
Read chapter 4 from A. Podony and M. McGee, The Ancient Near Eastern World.
Human beings have developed and used many different ways of communicating and
keeping track of things. As you answer these questions, pay attention to the differences
between:
- spoken language (or sign language – both used face to face)
- methods of recording-keeping
- actual writing systems
1. For human beings (as a species and as individuals), meaningful communication
typically begins with spoken language. Think about how children and students learn
language: in interaction with more experienced users of that language, who model
language use for them and correct them as their repertoire expands.
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In ancient Mesopotamia, what languages did people speak?
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Are those languages related to any other languages? If so, which ones?
2. Before they had an actual system of writing, people in the ancient world invented
ways of keeping records. What was it that made them want to start keeping records?
In the chart below, summarize the information that Podony and McGee provide about
early methods of record-keeping used by people in ancient Mesopotamia used.
Identify each method and listing them in chronological order, tell over what period
each method was used. Then explain what each method involved (very concretely:
what stuff was used? how?), and the problems or limitations associated with it.
(If it helps you envision each method of record-keeping, draw pictures in the margins.)
method of
record-keeping
timeframe
how it worked
drawbacks or limitations of
this method?
3. When do historians think that actual writing systems (as opposed to mere methods of
record-keeping) developed in ancient Mesopotamia (and other complex civilizations)?
People who study early human writing systems identify several stages in their
development. According to Podony and McGee, what were the basic stages in the
development of early writing systems in ancient Mesopotamia? (Read carefully and
pay close attention to the nature of the sign or symbol, and the kinds of things it could
stand for. Some stages may have a specific name, but others do not.)
stage
timeframe
kind of sign
what it stood for
example
4. What do we call the most advanced form of writing used in ancient Mesopotamia?
What do we call the writing system developed around the same time in Egypt?
5. What kind of writing system do we use in English? What makes this writing system
relatively easy to learn and use?
6. In ancient civilizations, who learned to read and write?
What kind of work would they do?
Where would they learn this?
7. In ancient times, what would you do if you could not read or write?
8. Once writing systems were developed, what did people use them to do? Over time,
what kinds of things were people able to do thanks to writing – that they could not
have done previously?