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"Life In Mesopotamia." Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our History. Life in Mesopotamia.
University of Chicago, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------● Believed to have invented writing (c. 3500 BCE)
● Wrote on clay tablets and used reeds to write with
● Originally used pictograms (represented objects and ideas, not letters)
● Switched to Cuneiform (too difficult to draw in the clay)
● Cuneiform = wedge-based symbols
● Development of writing led to the Information Revolution
○ Messages could be sent
● Reason for development:
○ Trading records
○ Govt. procedures
○ Eventually laws (Hammurabi’s code)
● Taught scribes w/ writing books
● Literary achievements
○ Connection to Gilgamesh (written c. 2000 BCE)
● Kudurru
○ Made of stone (very rare and expensive)--signifies importance
○ Kept records of sales (very detailed)
○ Stored in temples
■ Protection of the gods
■ Accessible to the general population
Lo, Lawrence. "Ancient Scripts: Home." Ancient Scripts: Home. Lawrence Lo, n.d. Web. 09 Apr.
2013.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Definition: set of visible characters that symbolize language in the written form
● Helps with memory (connection to psychology)
○ Many philosophers (i.e. Plato) are against writing--think it allows the brain to
become lazy and worsens memory
○ Non-writing civilizations pass on history and culture through oral tradition-civilizations w/ writing can’t usually do that and maintain accuracy
● Early uses of writing (helpful in ancient cities)
○ Record-keeping of agricultural output and calendar for farming (i.e. planting,
harvesting, etc.)
○ Religion--having doctrines written out and better communication to
supernatural forces
○ Govt./Political Institutions--confirmed power of the rulers and upper class
● Does writing define civilization?
○ No--people can still be civilized without writing; however, historians know most
about the civilizations that have written records
○ Also, civilization and writing tend to go together
● Mythological beliefs on writing
○ Many myths and gods created to explain writing origins
○ Egypt--Thoth (Dhwty in Egyptian) invented writing
■ Scribe and historian for the gods
■ God of speech--can use speech and turn it into palpable items
● Egyptians believe that immortality can only occur if the
individual’s name is spoken or written
■ Also kept the calendar, invented art, invented science
■ Humanities link--art (khartouche)
○ Mesopotamia
■ Sumer-Enlil (god that invented writing)
■ Assyria and Babylon-Nabu (scribe god that invented writing)
■ Scribe gods could also turn speech into items
○ Maya
■
Scribe gods = two monkeys
● Honored through depictions of vases
● Mentioned in “Popol Vuh” (ancient Mayan text, which means
“Book of the People”)
■ One exception = vase that shows a rabbit as the scribe god
○ China
■ Ts’ang Chieh = inventor of writing
● Man, not god
● Minister in Emperor Huang Ti’s court
■ Writing used for communication between Heaven and Earth
● Inscribed oracle bones used for religious purposes
● European View (1800s) = monogenesis
○ Believed that the original writing came from Mesopotamia--others copied it
○ Used evolution to describe types of writing
■ Chinese (logograms) = primitive
● Should have fewer characters
● Characters should represent sounds not words or phrases
■ Mayan = not even considered to be writing
○ Reasons for monogenesis
■ Make Europe seem superior
■ Denounce achievements of other continents
■ Defend imperialism
○ Flaws in monogenesis
■ No records of ancient writing in between Mesopotamian region and
China
■ Discovery of the oracle bones
■ Deciphered Mayan writing system--very advanced
● Types of Writing Systems
○ Logographic
■ Morpheme = unit of language that can represent a word, group of words,
phrase, or part of a word (i.e. prefix or suffix)
■ Logographic systems have an individual character to represent each
morpheme
■ Chinese (origin = 1500 BCE, arguably even earlier)
● Read from top to bottom
● Contains over 10,000 characters
● Only logographic writing system used in modern times
● Developed from early pictographic symbols (3000s BCE)
○
Records show carvings in pottery and jade
○ Pictograms began to represent the words of the pictured
object instead of the object itself
● Earliest Chinese writing (Shang dynasty) = oracle bones
○ Priests inscribed messages into bones and turtle shells
(positive and negative)
○ Heated material until cracks appeared
○ The cracks were read and future events were predicted
based on the cracking patterns
○ “Rebus-writing”--uses one symbol for homophones
(symbol depicts first word out of the group with the same
pronunciation; mostly monosyllabic language, so “rebuswriting” was very common)
○ “Semantic determinatives”--added another character to a
symbol to distinguish which meaning was meant for a
certain character (that has multiple meanings)
○ Today, “semantic derivatives” are called radicals, even
though they represent additions, not roots
○ Polysemy--uses the same characters to symbolize related
morphemes that have different sounds
○ “Phonetic complements”--added to polysemic characters
to help determine which pronunciation to use when
reading
● Evolution of Chinese (Mandarin)
○ Written language became more linear (less pictographic)
○ Oracle Bone Script (Jiaguwen)(1500-1000 BCE)
○ Greater Seal (Dazhuan)(1100-700 BCE): similar symbols to
Oracle Bone Script, but inscribed into bronze
○ Lesser Seal (Xiaozhuan): less pictographic and
characterized by organized and extensive usage of radicals.
Still used for calligraphy today.
○ Clerkly Script (Lishu)(500 BCE): became popular in the Qin
and Han bureaucracies (for officials). It had fewer strokes
and was more flowing than earlier styles, so it was more
efficient (could write more quickly with it), and it could be
used with pens. The characters became standardized
throughout the entire empire, and the characters are the
same as current characters (style changed only). Lishu is
still used occasionally today.
○ Standard Script (Kaishu)(220 CE): standard style used
today (not in People’s Republic of China), with curved
hook-like features on the ends of characters.
○ Running Script (Xingshu)(220 CE): cursive version of Kaishu
and merges some strokes together.
○ Grass Script (Caoshu)(emerged btw. 221-207 BCE): most
cursive Chinese writing that doesn’t look like Lishu or
Kaishu (merges some characters and strokes and leaves
out others).
○ Jiantizi (1949 CE): emerged after the establishment of the
People’s Republic of China and it simplified many
characters. It was accepted in Singapore; however, in
several Chinese cities, other Asian countries, and within
Chinese communities around the world, Jiantizi was
rejected due to the importance of honoring traditions in
Chinese culture.
● Influenced other languages, including Japanese, Korean, Yi Scripts,
Khitan, Jurchen, Tangut, Vietnamese Chu Nom, and Nushu
● Connection to “World Cultures Packet” (summer assignment)
● Connection to Creation Stories
○ Logophonetic
■ Composed of two types of signs: morphemes and sounds
■ Most symbols represent syllables (exception = Egyptian--represents
consonants)
■ Cuneiform (used from 3300 BCE-100 CE)
● Misconception: cuneiform represents more than one type of
writing system (i.e. logosyllabic, syllabic, alphabetic)
● Root = cuneus--means wedge
○ Any wedge-based writing system can be considered
cuneiform
● Examples include: Sumerian, Hittite, Old Persian, Ugaritic, Eastern
Semitic (Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian), Elamite, Eblaite, Hurrian,
Utartian
● 4000s: earliest records of Mesopotamian “writing”--influenced
Cuneiform (same time as rise of cities, i.e. Uruk, Ur, Nippur, Susa)
○ Only used for accounting and record-keeping
○
Came from Clay Tokens
● Clay Tokens (8000 BCE)
○ 3D shapes
○ Two types: plain and complex
○ Plain are simple geometric shapes and can be found in
Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Israel (8000 BCE)
○ Plain tokens were used to count agricultural items
○ To carry plain tokens, hollow, clay spheres were used
(called envelopes)
○ Complex have markings and were only found in S.
Mesopotamia (4000 BCE)
○ Complex tokens were used to count non-agricultural items
○ To carry complex tokens, they were strung together to a
piece of clay called a “bulla”
○ Evolution into 2D text: didn’t know how many tokens were
inside sealed envelopes, so the number was inscribed into
the clay envelope while it was still wet
○ Began to make impressions of plain tokens and used
wedges for quantities of regular tokens along with a
simple image of the item being represented)
○
Syllabic
■ Symbols only used for their phonetic values
■ Symbols = syllabograms
■ Syllabograms represent syllables
○ Consonantal Alphabet
■ Also called “abjads”
■ Don’t use vowels at all
■ Phoenician (1100 BCE-300 CE)
● Used in Western Asia/Middle East
● Read from right to left
● Influence for Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and Arabic
● Based on Proto-Sinaitic
○ DIfference: Phoenician was more linear, rather than
pictographic
● Contained only 22 characters
○ Syllabic Alphabet, or Abugida
■ Mostly consists of South Asian writing systems
■ Doesn’t fall into one category
■
Brahmi (400s BCE-300s CE)
● Root of many Asian languages (i.e. India, southeast Asia, east
Asia,etc.)
● Origins are very unclear (may have been Southern Semitic
language, Western Semitic language, or Harrappan language from
the Indus Valley civilization)
● Use extra strokes (“matras”) to show different vowels for a
particular consonant
● Use ligatures to represent groups of consonants that have no
vowel sounds in between
○ Segmental Alphabet
■ Almost all sounds have a written vowel or consonant
■ Greek (800 BCE)
● First Europeans to write with an alphabet
● Influenced all other languages including Etruscan (which
influenced Latin), Coptic, Cyrillic (which influenced modernRussian), Gothic, Glagolithic, Armenian, and Georgian
● Mycenaeans (1500-1200 BCE)--tried to use Linear B (Minoan
alphabet) as their own, but the sounds didn’t correlate well with
Greek sounds
● Influenced by Phoenician (Herodotus called the alphabet
“phoinikeia grammata”, which meant “Phoenician letters”)
● Used symbols that weren’t part of the Greek spoken language to
represent vowels
● Different variations of Greek amongst the city-states
● Originally, Greek was written right to left (like Phoenician)
● Later on, it switched direction every single line, which is called
boustrophedon (means “ox-turning”)
● In boustrophedon, the letter orientation also switches for each
line
● During the 400s BCE, Greek began to be written only from left to
right (which still exists today)
● Humanities link--amphora
● Connection to The Odyssey
● Connection to Creation Stories
■ Latin (700 BCE)
● Regions conquered by Rome used Latin for courtly life/procedures
and used the Latin alphabet with their own language (reason for
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many different European languages with the same letters and
different words)
Based on Etruscan alphabet--used many of the same symbols, but
modified it to fit their spoken language
Originally only had capital (majuscule) letters
300s CE--Uncian develops, which was a majuscule alphabet with
rounded edges
700s CE--Uncian becomes lowercase alphabet
800s CE--Charlemagne (Charles the Great) merges Latin and
Uncian together (Carolingian Reform), forming the modern
alphabet (“dual alphabet”)