chapter 1: the invention of writing -...

Chapter 1:

The Invention of Writing

Who invented the first systems of writing?

What did they look like?

How have they changed over time?

What came first?

Long, long before writing, humans were talking to each other and for thousands of years, ideas and information were passed down through the spoken word and story-telling.

Simple drawings of animals have been found carved or painted onto cave walls that are over 30,000 years old! But the real purpose of these drawings simply isn’t known.

It was much later that real systems of writing were created.

Writing seems to have been invented in different parts of the world at more or less the same time.

Earliest writing – in Sumer

Historians agree that one of the first groups of people to start real writing – and not simply cave pictures – were the Sumerians.

Sumer was an ancient civilization based in modern-day Iraq and part of the area once known as Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means ‘between rivers’. Can you see the two rivers on the map?

The Sumerians & Writing

The Sumerians were the first people to inhabit the area of Iraq, over 6,000 years ago.

They made great progress with writing:– They kept records of taxes– They wrote down laws– They also worked out a calendar. – They divided the day into 24 hours and an hour into 60 minutes.

Some early cave art

Cave painting from France, possibly as old as 40,000 years.

A cave engraving of an antelope from Algeria.


• The use of tools was a major step in the human species journey from a primitive to an organized state.

• The development of writing and visible language has its earliest origins in simple pictures.

• Marks, symbols, pictures, or letters drawn upon a surface became a graphic counterpart of the spoken word or thought.

Engraved drawing on a deer antler, c. 15,000 bc.


Engraved drawing on a deer antler, c. 15,000 bc.

Cave painting from Lascaux, c. 15,000–10,000 BC

PictographsEarly people used pictures as an elementary way to record and transmit information.

• When were theses pictures created and for what purposes were these picture used?

• What are the graphic characteristic of most pre-historic pictorial forms?– Think in terms of the elements of

design(line, shape/form, texture, color).

How many sheep..?Writing as inventory

• The earliest writing seems to have been to keep a record of property - how many animals you had, how much land or how many measures of grain your neighbors owed you.

• ‘Counting tokens’ made of clay were used for this purpose to trade around 6,000 years ago.

• For example, a token with a shape of a coin and with a cross carved on it indicated a sheep; a cone-shaped token meant a measure of corn, an egg-shaped indicated a flask of oil, etc. For 20 sheep, people needed to use 20 sheep tokens.

Clay trading tokens

Later, these tokens became smaller, more like today’s coins, and the had a symbol on them to show which animal or item they represented. Number systems developed so that a single coin could represent 10 or 20 of that object.

Pictoglyphs and Ideographs

Be able to compare and contrast these terms and their characteristics.

Pictographs were the beginning of pictorial art.

They evolved into Petroglyphs and Ideographs, which evolved into writing.

1–3. Fremont rock painting from San Raphael Swell, c. 2000–1000 bce.

The Fremont people lived in southern Utah.

1–4. Engraved drawing on a deer antler, c. 15,000 bce. This prehistoric image is shown in a cast made by rolling the

antler onto clay.

Archaic tablet fragment from the late fourth millennium BC. The drilled hole denotes a number, and the pictographs represent animals in this transaction of sheep and goats.

The Cradle of CivilizationAncient MesopotamiaWhere was it located?

Investigate the Sumerian influence on the evolution of writing.

How was their culture organized?

List some of the factors that contributed to the evolution of writing.

Sumerian writing - Pictographic

Starting at Pictographs then progressing to Cuneiform.

Early sumerian pictographic tablet, c. 3100 bce. This archaic pictographic script contained the seeds for the development of writing. Information is structured into grid zones by horizontal and vertical division.

The Evolution of Writing


Cuneiform(kyu-ney-uh-form)

Eventually, the pictographs were simplified as straight lines made using a wedge-shaped stick called a stylus.

This early writing is called Cuneiform. The word comes from the Latin word for ‘wedge’.

1–7. This clay tablet demonstrates how the Sumerian symbols for “star” (which also meant “heaven” or “god”), “head,” and “water” evolved from early pictographs (3100 bce). The latter were turned on their side by 2800 bce and evolved into early cuneiform writing by 2500 bce.

Look at the tip of the stylus

Cuneiform example

Cuneiform writing spread across the ancient Middle East. The straight wedges were easier to make than curved lines.

1–8. Cuneiform tablet from Umma, c. 2050 bce. Three workers are paid three bundles a day. The total for six days is fifty-four bundles of reed.

1–9. Cuneiform tablet from Drehem, 2040 bce. Abbashaga, Shu-Ma, the governor of Kazulla, provides 198 sheep and 162 goats the first time and 41 sheep and 82 female goats the second time.

Ur III period, dated to Amar-Sin (2039 bce) in Sumerian. Balanced silver account of Ur-Dumuzi, the merchant.

The Evolution of Writing


Consider the tools needed and how those tools dictated the style of the writing itself.

Who was able to read and write and what did that mean in a social structure in this age?

Old Babylonian (c. 1850 bce) in Akkadian. The world’s oldest cookbook, a collection of recipes for dishes for the royal palace or the temple.

Middle Babylonian, dated Shagarakti-Shunash (1245–1233 bce). Balanced account of seed.

The Blau monument, early Sumerian, third quarter, fourth millennium bce. Etched writing and carved relief figures are combined on this early shale artifact.

Black stone duck weight, c. 3000 bce. The cuneiform inscription dedicates this weight to the god Nanna by the King of Ur and confirms a weight of five minas. A mina weighed about 0.6 kilograms, or 18 ounces.

The code of Hammurabi

The first written law

Hammurabi was an ancient Babylonian king. He did something that no one had ever done before. The Sumerians had created the first written cuneiform. Using this written language, Hammurabi created the first written set of laws.

King Hammurabi is shown on a mountaintop with the seated sun god Shamash, who orders the king to write down the laws for the people of Babylon.

The Impact of WritingInvestigate what impact writing had on civilization.

• Literature• Law

– Hammurabi’s CodeResearch this code and be able to discuss three of the laws listed on this 8ft tall stele.

• Other cultural institutions?Detail of the Code of Hammurabi

The code of Hammurabi

What does “ an eye for an eye” mean?

“If a son strike his father, they shall cut off his fingers”

In Hammurabi's court, it did not matter if you were rich or poor. If you broke the law, and were found guilty, you would be punished.

Since the laws were clearly written down, everyone was expected to obey them. We still follow this system today.

1–16. Stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi, which was developed between 1792 and 1750 bce.

Persian stamp seal, c. 500 bce. Incised into a precious pale blue quartz called chalcedony in a gold mount, this seal, with its symmetrical design of a pair of heraldic beasts locked in combat, probably belonged to a member of the royal family or the high priesthood.

Mesopotamian Visual IdentificationTwo other natural by-products of the rise of this culture were the ownership of property and the specialization of craft and trades.

Mesopotamian cylinder seals

What are they?

Characteristics?

How were they used?

1–18. Stamp-cylinder seal (“the Tyszkiewiczseal”), Hittite, 1650–1200 bce. Combining decorative ornamentation with figurative images, this most likely portrays a ritual, possibly with a sacrificial offering on the right. It has both an image on the side, for rolling, and an image on the bottom, for stamping. Because it allows images to be reproduced, the cylinder seal can be seen as a precursor to printing.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Earliest known example of the Egyptian pictographic writing that evolved into hieroglyphics.

Example from 6th century of hieroglyphs


• Many hieroglyphics are also pictograms, often drawn sideways.

• The word ‘hiero’ means ‘sacred’ and ‘glyph’ means ‘carved’ or ‘engraved’. For the Egyptians, writing was something sacred and divine.

• The oldest hieroglyphics are thought to be about 6,000 years old.

Earliest writing - Egypt

• At around the same time as the Egyptians also developed their own system of writing. Hieroglyphics.

• The Egyptians didn’t write on clay tablets but used papyrus (an ancient paper made from the papyrus grass plant).

• The discovery and implementation of papyrus as a writing substrate was a major step in visual communication.

Papyrus paper - rolled into scrolls.

1–30. The hieroglyph for scribe depicted the Old Kingdom palette, the drawstring sack for dried ink cakes, and a reed brush holder. The changes in this glyph demonstrate the evolutionary process (from left to right): hieroglyph, 2700 bce; hieroglyphic manuscript hand, c. 1500 bce; hieratic script, c. 1300 bce; and demotic script, c. 400 bce.

Hieroglyphics

Writing was time-consuming and, in both Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was an activity reserved for professional people called scribes. They were highly trained, important people.

Some Hieroglyphics represented a complete word but many others stood for syllables.

They had even more symbols than the Sumerians did, as many as 5,000!

The Egyptians used their hieroglyphics for thousands of years.

Egyptian Rebus

An Egyptian Rebus is a form of hieroglyphs as shown above.

Can you guess what words this rebus represents?

You will need to be able to define rebus.

No vowels?!

• According to experts, the Egyptians didn’t include vowels when they wrote. This makes it very difficult for us today to decipher how to pronounce many words.

• Can you imagine our writing without any vowels?

t wld b vry dffclt t rd!

Pictogram Problems

• Also, what problems might you have if your writing system was all made from pictures?

• Can you ‘draw’ every word as a picture easily?

• Which words can you think of that might be difficult to draw as a picture?

Rebus to the rescue!• To solve the problems of writing all words through pictures,

sometimes hieroglyphics were used to represent a sound rather than represent the object drawn.

• This is known as the rebus principle. It meant complex words could be written using hieroglyphics.

• A rebus is a message spelt out in pictures using the pronunciation of each picture . For example, what do these two pictures mean together?

+ = ?

Did you guess it correctly?

• ‘eye’ + ‘deer’ makes…. ‘idea’!

↵ Here are some more. Can you think of your own?

Phoenician alphabet

• The next big change in writing came nearly two thousand years later, around 3,000 years ago.

• At that time people called the Phoenicians lived on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where Israel is today.

• The Phoenicians sailed all over the Mediterranean buying and selling things. They needed an easy way to keep records of what they bought and sold so they invented their own writing system.

Phoenician Alphabet 2• Unlike in hieroglyphics and Cuneiform, the Phoenicians realized that there

would be far, far fewer symbols in their writing if they didn’t have a symbol for each syllable but instead used shorter sounds.

So instead of having one symbol for "al" they one for "a" and one for "l". • The Phoenician alphabet had just 22 letters -- even fewer than ours.• Because the Phoenicians were such great travellers and their alphabet was so

easy to use, many other peoples learned to use it too. • The Greeks developed their alphabet based on the Phoenicians', and the

Romans based theirs on the Greeks'. The letters that you are reading right now are based on the ones that the Romans used.

Other ancient writing systems

• CHINA: The oldest traces of Chinese scripts date from the Shang dynasty (3,500 years ago). It was made of pictograms and mainly for religious purposes.

• MEXICO: Writing appeared around 2,700 years ago. It seems that the Mayas derived their writing from an older writing, used by other peoples. The Maya's writing was syllabic and was used to describe the most important events in the most powerful families.

Today.. Pictures still important

• Pictures for signs are still used to communicate today:

Modern-day Pictograms

Writing – still developing

What are ‘emoticons’?Why were they created?

1–22. The Rosetta Stone, c. 197–196 bce. From top to bottom, the concurrent hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek inscriptions provided the key to the secrets of ancient Egypt.


The Rosetta Stone

1–23. Details of the Rosetta Stone showing the name Ptolemy in hieroglyphics (top) and as the Greek word Ptolemaios (bottom).

1–24. Alphabet characters placed beside each hieroglyph in the cartouches of Ptolemy and Cleopatra demonstrate the approximate phonetic sounds deciphered by Champollion.

1–26. False door of Sitinteti, Old Kingdom, Sixth Dynasty, 2323–2150 bce. Tomb of the Lady Sat-tetylyn. In contrast to the raised images in the center, the hieroglyphs are carved into the surface and contained in a mathematical grid of carved lines.

Figure 1-28

Figure 1-29

1–31. Detail from the Papyrus of Hunefer, c. 1370 bce. Hunefer and his wife are worshipping the gods of Amenta. The sun god Ra bears an ankh symbol on his knee, and Thoth holds the udjat, the magical protective “sound eye” of the god Horus.

The hieroglyph for scribe depicted the Old Kingdom palette, the drawstring sack for dried ink cakes, and a reed brush holder. The changes in this glyph demonstrate the evolutionary process (from left to right): hieroglyph, 2700 bce; hieroglyphic manuscript hand, c. 1500 bce; hieratic script, c. 1300 bce; and demotic script, c. 400 bce.

Illustrated Manuscripts

Egyptians also combined words and pictures to communicate information in the complex narratives known as Chapters of Coming Forth by Day – also known as the Book of the Dead.

What role did these funerary papyri play in Egyptian society?

What are their graphic characteristics?

Egyptian Visual Identification

Egyptians used Scarabs as part of their visual identification system.

What was significant about the use of scarabs?

What were some of the materials that Scarabs were constructed from?

Now your turn!1. Why was writing first invented?2. In which two places in the world did writing systems

develop? 3. What were these two writing systems like?

chapter 1: the invention of writing -...

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