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The invention of writing
Prehistoric art: first appears 40,000 BCE…
Sumerian tokens are used between 8,500 BCE to
3,100 BCE and cuneiform writing on clay (and
stone) is used between 3,400 BCE to 75 CE
Egyptian hieroglyphs and hieratic writing are used
between 3,300 BCE to 394 CE
Lionesses from Chauvet Cave, France, c.
31,000 BCE (Prehistoric—no writing)
Complex counting tokens (oil
jar and textiles), Mesopotamia
(Sumerian), 4,000 to 3,200
BCE, 2 cm each
Bulla with
string of
complex
counting
tokens,
Mesopotamia
(Sumerian),
3,500 to 3,200
BCE; bulla is
2.5 x 6.5 cm
The “Edwin Smith”
medical papyrus,
written with black and
red ink in Egyptian
hieratic script in about
1600 BCE
Palette of Narmer, both sides, c. 3,100 BCE,
Egyptian, slate siltstone, 2 feet tall—the oldest
surviving object that includes writing
Book of the Dead for Hunefer, detail of an Egyptian
papyrus scroll using hieroglyphs, c. 1275 BCE
Cuneiform
Tablet,
Mesopotamia
(Neo-Sumerian),
c. 2029 BCE, 4
5/8 x 2 1/8 x 1 in
Code of
Hammurabi,
Mesopotamia
(Babylonian), c.
1772 BCE, diorite,
7' 5" x 1' 10"
Rosetta Stone, c. 196 BCE, with Egyptian
hieroglyphs, hieratic and Greek scripts
The beginning of human settlements,
c. 8,500 BCE: Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Shang China
Around 3100 BCE Sumerians in Mesopotamia
use a cuneiform script and Egyptians use
hieroglyphs.
2600 BCE Indians use an Indus Valley script,
probably derived from the Sumerians, which
disappears around 1800 BCE.
1700 BCE Canaanites develop the first true
abjad, which is spread by the Phoenicians.
1300 BCE The earliest form of writing in China
appears on oracle bones.
740 BCE The earliest examples of Greek
writing appears. The Greeks transform the
Phoenician abjad by adding the first letters
representing vowels, thus creating the first
alphabet.
200 CE The earliest existing examples of
Mayan writing appear in the Americas.
1300 BCE The earliest
form of writing in China
appears in the area of
the Yellow River, on
oracle bones.
Questions were written
on the bones, usually
the scapula of an ox or
the shell of a turtle and
then heated until it
cracked. Then an
oracle would interpret
the cracks.
Mesopotamia is Greek for the
place between two rivers: the
Euphrates and the Tigris. Some
of the world’s earliest writing
occurred here, along the rivers
fed by streams that originate in
the Zagros Mountains.
Cuneiform
Tablet,
Mesopotamia
(Neo-Sumerian),
c. 2029 BCE, 4
5/8 x 2 1/8 x 1 in
Mesopotamia
White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, (Warka, Iraq), 3,200-3,000 BCE
Sumerian Art (3,200 to
2,600 BCE)
In addition to being one of the first cities anywhere, Uruk was
the main force of urbanization during the Uruk period (4000–
3200 BC). This period of 800 years saw a shift from small,
agricultural villages to a larger urban center with a full-time
bureaucracy, military, and stratified society. This level of
urbanization is only possible because of the invention of writing.
Reconstruction drawing
White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, (Warka, Iraq), 3,200-3,000 BCE
The Mesopotamian cultures built their cities out of mud (brick), which came
from their rivers.
Plan of the White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, (Warka, Iraq),
3,200-3,000 BCE
Reconstruction drawing
Mud brick construction for their architecture
White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, (Warka, Iraq), 3,200-3,000 BCE
According to Metropolitan Museum of Art’s
website…
Mud brick construction
Writing "took off" as the need for more
permanent accounting practices became
evident with the rapid growth of large cities
with mixed populations at the end of the
fourth millennium B.C. Clay became the
preferred medium for recording bureaucratic
items as it was abundant, cheap, and
durable in comparison to other mediums.
Initially, a reed or stick was used to draw
pictographs and abstract signs into
moistened clay. Over time, pictographic
representation was replaced with wedgeshaped signs, formed by impressing the tip
of a reed or wood stylus into the surface of a
clay tablet. Modern (nineteenth-century)
scholars called this type of writing cuneiform
after the Latin term for wedge, cuneus.
Ira Spar. "The Origins of Writing". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wrtg/hd_wrtg.htm (originally
published October 2004, last revised April 2009)
Detail from the prologue of the Code of Hammurabi (the 305 first text squares on
the stele), cuneiform, c. 1780 BCE.
clay tokens >
abstract numbers >
cuneiform writing >
mathematics
NEOLITHIC PLAIN COUNTING TOKENS POSSIBLY REPRESENTING 1 MEASURE OF GRAIN, 1 ANIMAL
AND 1 MAN OR 1 DAY'S LABOR, c. 8,000 to 3,500 BCE, 1 x 4 cm each, Schoyen collection
Clay tokens were invented by the people of Mesopotamia around 8000 BCE to keep track
of debts that resulted from the exchange of commodities such as wheat or cloth. They
took on all of the basic geometric forms, such as spheres, tetrahedrons, cones, cylinders,
discs, quadrangles, triangles, etc.
These plain counting tokens were used for 5000 years prior to the invention of abstract
numbers, which lead to cuneiform writing about 3300 BC, and then to the study of
mathematics ca. 2,600 BCE.
http://www.schoyencollection.com/mathematics-collection/pre-literate-counting/neolithic-counting-tokens-ms5067-1-8
Neolithic plan counting tokens, c. 8000—3500 BCE
COMPLEX COUNTING TOKENS
REPRESENTING 1 JAR OF OIL and VARIOUS
TEXTILES, c. 4,000 to 3,200 BCE, 2 cm each,
Schoyen collection
The complex tokens were a natural
development from the plain tokens with
new forms, added lines, dots and
various designs to cover the more
advanced accounting needs. They lasted
until ca. 3200 BC, when they were
superseded by counting tablets and
pictographic tablets. Some of the earliest
tablets have actual tokens impressed into
the clay to form numbers and
pictographs, and many of the pictographs
were illustrations of tokens.
http://www.schoyencollection.com/mathematicscollection/pre-literate-counting/complex-counting-tokens-ms4522-1
When tokens were invented,
they were first kept in
baskets, leather poaches,
clay bowls, etc., and later
within clay bullas and on
strings.
BULLA-ENVELOPE WITH 11 PLAIN AND
COMPLEX TOKENS INSIDE, REPRESENTING AN
ACCOUNT OR AGREEMENT, TENTATIVELY OF
WAGES FOR 4 DAYS' WORK, 4 MEASURES OF
METAL, 1 LARGE MEASURE OF BARLEY AND 2
SMALL MEASURES OF SOME OTHER
COMMODITY, ca. 3700-3200 BC, diam. ca. 6.5 cm,
Schoyen Collection
The invention of “bulla” envelopes where
tokens representing a delinquent account
could be kept safely until the debt was paid.
X ray of unopened bulla
reveals tokens, some
apparently cones and
others ovoids, Schoyen
collection.
Only 70 bullae survive
intact.
The tokens standing for the amounts due
were placed in hollow clay balls and, in
order to show the content of the envelopes,
the accountants created markings by
impressing the tokens on the wet clay
surface before enclosing them.
The cylinder seal impressions of a row of
men walking left, etc., indicated the parties
involved in the transaction.
https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/tokens-and-writing-thecognitive-development/
Cylinder seal with schematic workers, 3300–2900 BCE (and modern impression in clay),
Southern Mesopotamia, Rock crystal, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Cylinder seals are usually carved stones that leave an impression when rolled onto a slab of
clay. Since each seal is unique, it represents the unique individual who would wear it on a
string around his neck.
BULLA FOR HOLDING A STRING OF COMPLEX
COUNTING TOKENS CONCERNING A TRANSACTION,
c. 3,500 to 3,200 BCE, 2.5 x 6.5 cm, Schoyen collection
The bulla on the left shows evidence
that it originally locked the ends of a
string with a number of complex
counting tokens attached to it,
representing one transaction. The
string with the tokens was hanging
outside the bulla like a necklace. If the
string had, say, five disk type tokens
representing types of textiles, this
number could not be tampered with
without breaking the seal. This
explains why some complex tokens
have holes pierced through them.
http://en.finaly.org/index.php/Two_precursors_of_writing:_
plain_and_complex_tokens
BULLA FOR HOLDING A STRING OF
COMPLEX COUNTING TOKENS
CONCERNING A TRANSACTION, c. 3,500 to
3,200 BCE, 2.5 x 6.5 cm, Schoyen collection
A Babylonian tablet inscribed
with the directions for brewing beer
(c. 3100 BCE)
The Babylonians, who lived in Mesopotamia, invented
abstract numbers around 3200 BCE, just before they
invented writing.
An earlier account of fourteen jars of oil would just be
fourteen tokens of the present type.
After the invention of abstract numbers, fourteen jars would
be substituted by the number fourteen and the pictograph of
a jar with lid looking similar to the token.
A Babylonian tablet inscribed
with the directions for brewing beer
(c. 3100 BCE)
An ideogram is a written character symbolizing
the idea of a thing (such as the number 1)
without indicating the sounds used to say it.
Tokens helped to develop the first
counting system, which predates
abstract writing. For example, a cone
shape originally stood for a small
measure of grain and a sphere stood
for a large measure of grain. They came
to represent the abstract concepts of one
and ten of anything. This was the first
visual code, the oldest abstract symbol
(ideogram) system created for
communicating.
Pictographic tablet featuring an account of 33
measures of oil, (circular = 10, wedges = 1) from
Godin Tepe, Iran, ca. 3100 B.C.
A Babylonian tablet inscribed
with the directions for brewing beer
(c. 3100 BCE)
A symbol is an image that represents something else without
resembling it—the way that the American flag represents
America without looking anything like it. Numerical ideograms
are symbols that indicate numbers without looking like or
sounding like the numbers that they represent.
Complex counting token of an oil
jar. Mesopotamia, 4,000 to 3,200
BCE
Pictographic tablet featuring an account of 33
measures of oil, (circular = 10, wedges = 1) from
Godin Tepe, Iran, ca. 3100 B.C.
Complex counting token of an oil
jar. Mesopotamia, 4,000 to 3,200
BCE
Over time, tokens that
resembled the things they
represented (oil jar) became
more and more abstract and
symbolic (sideways V crossed
twice with vertical lines).
Stages lead to the development of cuneiform for the sign SAG, meaning
"head":
1 shows the pictogram as it was drawn around 3000 BCE
2 shows the rotated pictogram as written around 2800 BCE
3 shows the abstracted glyph in archaic monumental inscriptions, from c.
2600 BCE
4 is the sign as written in clay, also around 2600 BCE
5 represents the late 3rd millennium BCE
6 represents Old Assyrian ductus of the early 2nd millennium, as adopted into
Hittite
7 is the simplified sign as written by Assyrian scribes in the early 1st
millennium BCE, and until the script's extinction.
Shape of the stylus end
that creates Neo-Sumerian
and Babylonian cuneiform
writing.
Cuneiform tablet impressed with
cylinder seal: balanced account
of barley, Mesopotamia (NeoSumerian), c. 2029 BCE, 4 5/8 x
2 1/8 x 1 in
The Rebus Principle, video, 3:00 (KU-SHIM Tablet)
Lu = man
About 3000 BC, the state bureaucracy seems to have required
that the names of people involved in trades be entered on the
tablets rather than just their cylinder seal. To record the personal
name of these individuals, new signs were created that stood for
the sounds of their names – phonograms. For this purpose, the
Sumerians adopted what we refer to today as “the rebus
principle.”
In English, a rebus might be the image of an eye followed by the
images of a tin, a wavy sea, and a baby sheep. We could read
these pictograms as a rebus: “I can see you.”
In cuneiform, a drawing of a man stood for the sound (syllable)
“lu” and a drawing of a mouth stood for the syllable “ka.” Written
as a rebus, the two signs, man-mouth, would become the
phonetic sign for the man’s name, “Luca.”
Ka = mouth
A syllable is a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound that
is often combined with various consonant sounds, forming the
whole or a part of a word. For example, there are two syllables
in water and three in inferno.
Only a few examples of the use of the rebus principle exist in the
earliest stages of cuneiform writing from between 3200 and 3000
B.C. The consistent use of this type of phonetic writing only
becomes apparent after 2600 B.C.
Here are a few of the
Sumerian cuneiform
syllables:
To compose your Sumerian
truism, you can find the
Sumerian syllabary at this
website:
http://www.omniglot.com/writi
ng/sumerian.htm
The French archaeologist Denise
Schmandt-Besserat, who discovered these
developments, has concluded that the
Sumerians believed that the name of a
deceased individual was to be spoken
aloud at regular intervals to sustain him in
the underworld.
The writing of Meskalamdug’s name on a
gold bowl that was buried with him
suggests that writing the sounds of his
name was deemed equivalent to speaking
the name aloud—and thus guaranteeing
the survival of the dead.
Sumer king Meskalamdug’s gold bowl, c. 2700 BCE, inscribed with his name
Denise
SchmandtBesserat
The first extended text that has been preserved using
cuneiform, and the last object with cuneiform that we will
look at in this course is the Stele of the Code (or Laws) of
King Hammurabi, which dates to about 1770 BCE. Smart
History Video, 3:17
Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia (Babylonian), c. 1772
BCE
Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia (Babylonian), c. 1772 BCE
Note the writing convention here: Each word is confined within a rectangle.
Prologue of the Code of Hammurabi (the 305 first text
squares on the stele), cuneiform, c. 1780 BCE.
Among the 282 laws were:
•If someone is careless when watering his fields, and he
floods someone else's by accident, he will pay for the grain
he has ruined.
•If a man wants to throw his son out of the house, he has to
go before a judge and say, "I don't want my son to live in
my house any more." The judge will find out the reasons. If
the reasons are not good, the man can't throw his son out.
•If the son has done some great evil to his father, his father
must forgive him the first time. But if he has done
something evil twice, his father can throw him out.
•If a thief steals a cow, a sheep, a donkey, a pig, or a goat,
he will pay ten times what it is worth. If he doesn't have any
money to pay with, he will be put to death.
•If a man puts out the eye of another man, put his own
eye out. If he knocks out another man's tooth, knock
out his own tooth. If he breaks another man's bone,
break his own bone.
•If a doctor operates on a patient and the patient dies, the
doctor's hand will be cut off.
•If a builder builds a house, and that house collapses and
kills the owner's son, the builder's son will be put to death.
•If a robber is caught breaking a hole into the house so that
he can get in and steal, he will be put to death in front of
that hole.
•If a son strikes his own father, his hands shall be cut off.
Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia
(Babylonian), c. 1772 BCE
Mesopotamia and Egypt
Palette of Narmer, c. 3,100 BCE, Egyptian, slate
siltstone, 2 feet tall
Bulla with
string of
complex
counting
tokens,
Mesopotamia
(Sumerian),
3,500 to 3,200
BCE
Lionesses from Chauvet Cave, France, c.
31,000 BCE (Prehistoric)
Complex counting tokens (oil jar
and textiles), Mesopotamia
(Sumerian), 4,000 to 3,200 BCE
The “Edwin Smith”
medical papyrus,
written with black and
red ink in Egyptian
hieratic script in about
1600 BCE
Cuneiform
Tablet,
Mesopotamia
(Neo-Sumerian),
c. 2029 BCE, 4
5/8 x 2 1/8 x 1 in
Code of Hammurabi,
Mesopotamia
(Babylonian), c.
1772 BCE, diorite, 7'
5" x 1' 10"
Palette of Narmer, both sides, c. 3,100 BCE,
Egyptian, slate siltstone, 2 feet tall
Book of the Dead for Hunefer, detail of an Egyptian
papyrus scroll using hieroglyphs, c. 1275 BCE
Rosetta Stone, c. 196 BCE, with Egyptian
hieroglyphs, hieratic and Greek scripts