The First Writing

Writing has its origins in the Fertile Crescent and the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Even though these civilizations emerged around the same time, first credit for this totally transforming human development is usually given to Sumer (Mesopotamia) by a short margin. Sumerian script is usually dated to about 3100 BCE, while the Egyptian version is dated about a century later. New evidence for both sides is still being discovered so we can never say for certain.

Evolution of Writing

Most early writing systems begin with small images used as words, literally depicting the thing in question. But pictograms of this kind are limiting. Some physical objects are too difficult to draw and many words are concepts rather than objects.

Name:____________________________________________ period:________________

Cuneiform in Mesopotamia: from 3100 BC

In about 3200, BC temple officials in Sumer develop a reliable and lasting method of keeping track of the animals and other goods which are the temple's wealth. On lumps of wet clay the scribes draw a simplified picture of the item in question. They then make a similar mark in the clay for the number counted and recorded. When allowed to bake hard in the sun, the clay tablet becomes a permanent document. .

Significantly the chief official of many Sumerian temples is known by a word, sangu, which seems to mean 'accountant'. But however non-literary the

purpose, these practical jottings in Sumer are the first steps in writing.

As writing develops, a standardized method of doing it begins to emerge. This is essential to the very purpose of writing, making it capable of carrying a message over unlimited distances of space or time. Doing so depends on the second scribe, in a faraway place or the distant future, being able to read what the first scribe has written.

In Mesopotamia clay remains the most common writing surface, and the standard writing implement becomes the end of a sharply cut reed. These two ingredients define this early human script. Characters are formed from the wedge-shaped marks which the reed makes when pressed into the damp clay, so the style of writing becomes known as cuneiform (from the Latin cuneus, meaning wedge).

Hieroglyphics and papyrus in Egypt: from 3000 BC

The second civilization to develop writing, shortly after the Sumerians, is Egypt. The Egyptian characters are much more directly pictorial in kind than the Sumerian, but the system of suggesting objects and concepts is similar. The Egyptian characters are called hieroglyphs by the Greeks in about 500 BC, because by that time this form of writing is reserved

for holy texts; hieros and glypho mean 'sacred' and 'engrave' in Greek. Because of the importance of hieroglyphic inscriptions in temples and tombs, much of the creation of these beautiful characters is by painters, sculptors in relief and craftsmen modelling in plaster. But with the introduction of papyrus, the Egyptian script is also the business of scribes.

The Egyptian scribe uses a fine reed pen to write on the smooth surface of the papyrus scroll. They also use a wooden pen holder with two circular indent ations, one for red ink and one for black. The red ink was prepared by mixing ochre with gelatin, gum and bee wax and the black ink was prepared by mixing carbon or soot with the same materials to make it in a form of cake and then use water and write with it. Inevitably the act of writing causes the hieroglyphs to become more fluid than the strictly formal versions carved and painted in tombs. Over time three official versions of script (known technically as hieratic) used by the scribes emerge. There is one, the most formal, for religious documents; one for literature and official documents; and one for private letters. In about 700 BC the pressure of business causes the Egyptian scribes to develop a more abbreviated version of the hieratic script. Its constituent parts are still the same Egyptian hieroglyphs, established more than 2000 years previously, but they are now so elided (omitting vowels) that the result looks like an entirely new script. Known as demotic ('for the people'), it is harder to read than the earlier written versions of Egyptian. Both hieroglyphs and demotic continue to be used until about 400 AD. Thereafter their secret is forgotten, until the chance discovery of the Rosetta stone makes it possible for the hieroglyphic code to be cracked in the 19th century.

The Rosetta Stone is a stele, or piece of stone with writing on it. It was discovered by French soldiers in Napoleon’s army when he invaded Egypt. The basalt slab was found in the town of Rosetta (now Rashid) in 1799. What has come to be called the Rosetta Stone was written on March 27, 196 BCE. The stone is so important because carved on the stone was a decree praising King Ptolemy V. What was written wasn’t so important, but the way it was written was very important! The Rosetta Stone has the same information in three different languages: Egyptian

hieroglyphics, Demotic, and ancient Greek. When the stone was found no one knew how to read hieroglyphics or Demotic, but they could read ancient Greek. Eventually a French expert, Jean-Francois Champollion in languages was able to use his knowledge of Coptic, Arabic and Hebrew, three languages related to Egyptian, to unlock the key to the translation. In 1822 Champollion became the first person in 1500 years to read the language of the ancient Egyptians!

papyrus

Hieroglyphics

Demotic

Ancient Greek

The seals of the Indus valley: from 2500 BC

Language   Like the other two river valley civilizations, the Harappan culture developed a written language. In contrast to cuneiform and hieroglyphics, the Harappan language has been impossible to decipher. This is because, unlike the other two languages, linguists have not found any inscriptions that are bilingual. The Harappan language is found on stamps and seals made of carved stone used for trading pottery and tools. About 400 symbols make up the language. Scientists believe the symbols, like hieroglyphs, are used both to depict an object and also as phonetic sounds. Some signs stand alone and others

seem to be combined into words.

As in the other great early civilizations, the government of the Indus valley have the benefit of writing to help them in their administration. The Indus script, which has not yet been deciphered, is known from thousands of seals, carved in steatite or soapstone. Usually the center of each seal is occupied by a realistic depiction of an animal, with above it a short line of formal symbols. The lack of longer inscriptions or texts suggests that this script is probably limited to trading and accounting purposes, with the signs establishing quantities and ownership of something.

Chinese characters: from 1600 BC

The last of the early civilizations to develop writing is China, in about 1600 BC., However, symbols found written on tortoise shells date back to 2000 years before the first known Sumerian writing! It is not known if these characters are direct link to current Chinese characters, but China does outdo the others in devising a system which has evolved, as a working script, from ancient times to today. Chinese characters are ill-suited to innovations as printing, typewriting or word-processing. Yet they have survived. They have even provided the script for an entirely different language, Japanese.

The Non-phonetic Chinese script has been a crucial binding agent in China's vast empire. Officials from far-flung places, often unable to speak each other's language, have been able to communicate fluently in writing.

There have been various stories about the origin of the Chinese script, with nearly all ancient writers attributing it to a man named Cangjie. Cangjie, according to one legend, saw a divine being whose face had unusual features that looked like a picture of writings. In imitation of his image, Cangjie created the earliest written characters. After that, certain ancient accounts go on to say, millet rained from heaven and the spirits howled every night to lament the leakage of the divine secret of writing.

Another story says that Cangjie saw the footprints of birds and beasts, which inspired him to create written characters.

The earliest examples of Chinese writing date to the late Shang period (ca. 1200 BC). These are the so-called Oracle Bone Inscriptions which were found at the site of the last Shang capital near present-day Anyang, Henan province.

The discovery of the oracle bones in China goes back to 1899, when a scholar from Peking was prescribed a remedy containing "dragon bones" for his illness: "dragon bones" were widely used in Chinese medicine and usually refer to fossils of dead animals. The scholar noticed some carvings that looked like some kind of writing on the bones he acquired from the local pharmacy. This lucky find led eventually to the discovery of Anyang, the last capital of Shang dynasty where archeologists have found an enormous amount of these carved bones.

The inscriptions on these bones tell us that by 1200 BC Chinese writing was already a highly developed writing system which was used to record a language fairly similar to classical Chinese. Such a complex and sophisticated script certainly has a history but so far we found no traces of its predecessors.

Phonetics and the alphabet: from the 15th century BC

The most significant development in the history of writing, since the first development of a script in about 3200 BC, is the move from a pictographic or syllabic system (characteristic of Sumerian, ancient Egyptian and Chinese) to a phonetic one, based on recording the spoken sound of a word. This change has one enormous benefit. It can take the hard work out of learning all the characters in writing and make it more accessible to EVERYONE.

The first early steps in this direction are taken in the second millennium BC in the trading communities of Phoenicia. Phoenician is a Semitic language and the new approach to writing is adopted by the various Semitic groups in Phoenicia and Palestine. Versions of it are used, for example, for Aramaic and Hebrew. Only the consonants are written, leaving the vowels to be understood by the reader (as is still the case today with a widespread Semitic language, Arabic). The contribution of the Greeks, adapting the Phoenician system of writing in the 8th century BC, is to add vowels. For some they use the names of existing Phoenician letters (alpha for example). For others entirely new signs are added.

The result is a Greek alphabet of twenty-four letters. The alphabet takes its name from the first two letters in the Phoenician system, alpha and beta, borrowed and adapted by the Greeks.

The Romans in their turn develop the Greek alphabet to form letters suitable for the writing of Latin. It is in the Roman form - and through the Roman Empire - that the alphabet spreads through Europe, and eventually through much of the world, as a standard system of writing. With a system as simple as this, and with portable writing materials such as papyrus, wooden tablets or leaves written correspondence becomes a familiar part of everyday life.

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek was the language spoken by the people of Ancient Greece from the 9th to 4th century B.C. Ancient Greek and Latin are the most important ancient languages (languages which are no longer spoken) for speakers of English today. This is because a very large number of English words come from Greek and Latin.

The Greek language had many different dialects, but the “Attic Greek” which was spoken by the people of Athens is thought to be the purest of the forms. Because the Greeks became very powerful in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea their language spread very quickly. Alexander the Great even took it into Asia. Later, in the Roman world, children were taught Greek as a second language in the same way that many non-English speakers today learn English as their second language.

The great poems of the Ancient Greek poets like Homer were written in Greek. The poems of the Iliad and the Odyssey tell exciting stories about warfare, travel and the Greek gods. In the 5th century B.C., some great plays were written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. This was the "Golden Age" of Ancient Greece, the so-called "Hellenistic" period. These works of Ancient Greek literature inspired people for centuries and are still read today.

All languages change with time, and Greek has changed a lot since 25 centuries ago. Modern Greek is often said to have started in the year 453 A.D.

Unlike Latin, the Ancient Greek language did not split into many languages and is not considered a separate language from Modern Greek language, but a different period in the history of the language up to the present day.

The first American script: 2nd c. BC - 3rd c. AD

Of the various early civilizations of central America, the Maya make the greatest use of writing. In their ceremonial centers they set up numerous columns, or stelae, engraved with hieroglyphs. But they are not the inventors of writing in America. Credit for this should possibly go back as far as the Olmecs. Certainly there is some evidence that they are the first in the region to devise a calendar, in which writing of some sort is almost essential. The Zapotecs, preceding the Maya, have left the earliest surviving inscriptions, dating from about the 2nd century BC. The first Mayan stele to be securely dated is erected at Tikal in the equivalent of the year AD 292.

The Mayan script is hieroglyphic with some phonetic (sound) elements. Its interpretation has been a long struggle, going back to the 16th century, and even today only about 80% of the hieroglyphs are understood. Maya writing was believed to be a gift from the gods and was considered sacred. Very few people could read and write because this “secret” was safely guarded. Writing was used to strengthen a ruler’s power and to record important events such as royal marriages, births or military victories. Hieroglyphs were written on Mayan monuments, paper, plaster and pottery. Some were painted on deer hide or fig tree paper covered with a thin layer of plaster. They also wrote books on paper made from tree bark folded in half to make pages. Unfortunately most of these remarkable books were destroyed by Spanish invaders.

Ceramic vessel with Mayan script * Mayan book (Codex) * Mayan script on panel