The Birth of Writing
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Transcript of The Birth of Writing
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The Birth of Writing
FOH 7 and Podony and McGee, The Ancient Near Eastern World
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Before we can talk about the birth of WRITING, we need to consider two other important means of conveying information in ancient societies of the Fertile Crescent:
• SPOKEN LANGUAGE•METHODS OF RECORD-KEEPING
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Languages spoken in ancient times in the Fertile Crescent?
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In Mesopotamia?
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In Mesopotamia:
- Sumerian- Akkadian
Relationship to other languages?(language family?)
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In Mesopotamia:
- Sumerian- Akkadian
Relationship to other languages?part of the Semitic family of languages
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The Semitic language family tree
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Where were these languages spoken?
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So keep in mind that the basis for creating other ways of communicating is the fact that people living in the Fertile Crescent werealready using spoken language and living in a context marked by significant linguistic and cultural diversity.
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Before they had an actual system of writing, people in the ancient Fertile Crescent (specifically Mesopotamia) had
METHODS OF RECORD-KEEPING.
When and why did they need methods of record-keeping?
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From c. 8000 BCE on…
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From c. 8000 BCE on,with the discovery and spread of AGRICULTUREthey had…
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From c. 8000 BCE on,with the discovery and spread of AGRICULTUREthey had SURPLUS which they treated asPRIVATE PROPERTY…
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From c. 8000 BCE on,with the discovery and spread of AGRICULTUREthey had SURPLUS which they treated asPRIVATE PROPERTY – so they needed ways to keep track of what they had, and to communicate what they wanted when they conducted trade, especially through a middleman (servant, child, caravan driver…).
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Early methods of record-keeping?
[See charts filled out in class.]
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Over time, what drives these changes in methods of record-keeping?
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Over time, what drives these changes in methods of record-keeping?
- Effort to keep track of tokens and goods- Effort to create a reliable and easy-to-consult record of the transaction- Desire to communicate more information clearly (perhaps by use of shared symbols)
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actual WRITING systems?
- What makes them different from mere methods of record-keeping?
- When do historians think they developed in Mesopotamia?
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actual WRITING systems
- when people started using reed pens (instead of tokens) to draw on tablets of clay -- representing words/things/ideas instead of imprinting tokens on clay
Podony & McGee: Butler:c. 3200 BCE c. 3500-3000 BCE
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STAGES in the development of WRITING SYSTEMS
Podony & McGee: Butler:
- pictograms - pictographs- [ideo-grams] - ideographs- syllabaries - rebus writing
- concrete sign- abstract sign
- phonetic alphabet
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Podony & McGee
c. 3200 BCE pictograms
a concrete sign stands for the thing itlooks like(nouns only)
= bread
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Podony & McGee
c. 3200 – 3000 BCE pictograms gradually come to stand for related
ideas (“ideo-grams?”) a concrete sign stands for the thing it
looks like ORa similar verb oradjective
= bread OR to bake OR baked
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Podony & McGee
c. 3000 BCE syllabaries developa sign stands for the SOUND of a syllable
or a word
= ‘ti’ which can mean arrow OR life OR to take
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Podony & McGee
c. 3000 BCE syllabaries developa sign stands for the SOUND of a syllable
or a wordat first, signs areconcrete (look like recognizable things
= ‘ti’ (arrow, life, to take,or just the sound ‘ti’)
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Podony & McGeec. 3000 BCE syllabaries develop
a sign stands for the SOUND of a syllable or a wordat first, signs are concrete (look like recognizable things)
= ‘ti’ (arrow, life, to take, sound ‘ti’)
c. 3000 – 700 BCEbut over time, signs become more abstract
(less and less recognizable)
ѱ ῳ W = ‘ta’ (wheat) ‘ta’ (wheat, joy, to buy) ‘ta’ (sound)
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Podony & McGee
Examples of syllabaries?
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Podony & McGee
Examples of syllabaries:
- cuneiform (in Mesopotamia elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent)
- hieroglyphics (in Egypt)
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STAGES in the development of WRITING SYSTEMS
Podony & McGee: Butler:
- pictograms (3200 BCE) - pictographs (3500 BCE)- [ideo-grams] - ideographs (3000 BCE) - syllabaries (3000 BCE) - rebus
- concrete sign writing (2100 BCE)- abstract sign
--------------------------------------------------------------------- - phonetic alphabet(c. 1000 BCE)
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Difference between a syllabary and a phonetic alphabet?
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Syllabary vs. phonetic alphabet
- How many signs (symbols) have to be learnedhundreds vs. twenty-some
li Lmi Mni Nse Isi E
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Learning to read/write in the ancient Near East
- Who?- Where?- What kinds of work?
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What if you couldn’t read/write?
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Once actual WRITING SYSTEMS were developed, what kinds of things were people able to do thanks to writing that they could not have done previously?
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SPOKEN LANGUAGEAGRICULTURE SURPLUS (private property)
METHODS OF RECORD-KEEPING
ACTUAL WRITING SYSTEMS, with different stages over time
kind of sign and what it stands for