It consisted of a set of 22 letters, each standing for a single sound of voice, which, combined in countless ways, allowed for an unprecedented flexibility for transcribing speech Powell This earliest alphabet was a complete departure from the previous syllabaries. Second, it was consonantal—it dealt only with speech sounds characterized by constriction or closure at one or more points in the breath channel, like b, d, l, m, n, p, etc. Third, it streamlined the system to 22 signs, instead of several hundred.
The transition from cuneiform writing to the alphabet in the ancient Near East took place over several centuries. In the seventh century BC the Assyrian kings still dictated their edicts to two scribes. The first wrote Akkadian in cuneiform on a clay tablet; the second Aramaic in a cursive alphabetic script traced on a papyrus scroll. The Phoenician merchants established on the coast of present day Syria and Lebanon, played an important role in the diffusion of the alphabet.
In particular, they brought their consonantal alphabetic system to Greece, perhaps as early as, or even before BC. The Greeks perfected the Semitic alphabet by adding letters for vowels—speech sounds in the articulation of which the breath channel is not blocked, like a, e, i, o, u. As a result the letter Greek alphabet improved the transcription of the spoken word, since all sounds were indicated. The alphabet did not subsequently undergo any fundamental change.
Because the alphabet was invented only once, all the many alphabets of the world, including Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, Brahmani and Cyrillic, derive from Proto-Sinaitic. The Latin alphabet used in the western world is the direct descendant of the Etruscan alphabet Bonfante The Etruscans, who occupied the present province of Tuscany in Italy, adopted the Greek alphabet, slightly modifying the shape of letters.
The alphabet followed the Roman armies. All the nations that fell under the rule of the Roman Empire became literate in the first centuries of our era. Charlemagne AD had a profound influence on the development of the Latin script by establishing standards. In particular a clear and legible minuscule cursive script was devised, from which our modern day lower case derives.
The printing press invented in dramatically multiplied the dissemination of texts, introducing a new regularity in lettering and layout. The Internet catapults the alphabet into cyberspace, while preserving its integrity. Beyond the formal and structural changes undergone by writing in the course of millennia, its evolution also involved strides in the ability to handle data in abstraction.
At the first stage, the token system antecedent of writing, already abstracted information in several ways. First, it translated daily-life commodities into arbitrary, often geometric forms. Second, the counters abstracted the items counted from their context. For example, sheep could be accounted independently of their actual location. Third, the token system separated the data from the knower. That is to say, a group of tokens communicated directly specific information to anyone initiated in the system.
This was a significant change for an oral society, where knowledge was transmitted by word of mouth from one individual to another, face to face.
Otherwise, the token system represented plurality concretely, in one-to-one correspondence. Three jars of oil were shown by three tokens, as it is in reality.
At the same time, the fact that the token system used specific counters to count different items was concrete—it did not abstract the notion of item counted from that of number. Certain English numerical expressions referring to particular sets, such as twin, triplet, quadruplet and duo, trio or quartet, are comparable to concrete numbers.
When tokens were impressed on the envelopes to indicate the counters enclosed inside, the resulting markings could no longer be manipulated by hand. In other words, the transmutation of three-dimensional counters into two-dimensional signs constituted a second step in abstraction. By doing away with tokens, the clay tablets marked a third level of abstraction since the impressed markings no longer replicated a set of actual counters.
The invention of numerals, which separated the notion of numerosity from that of the item counted, was a crucial fourth step in abstraction. The signs expressing the concept of oneness, twoness, etc.
In turn, the phonetic units marked a fifth step of abstraction, since the signs no longer referred to the objects pictured, but rather the sound of the word they evoked. Phonetics allowed writing to shift from a representational to a conceptual linguistic system. That is to say it enabled writing to leave the realm of real goods in order to enter the world of words and the ideas they stand for. Finally, the process that started with ideograms expressing concepts and phonetic signs referring to the sound of monosyllabic words reached the ultimate segmentation of meaning with letters.
As Marshall McLuhan defined it, the alphabet consists of semantically meaningless letters corresponding to semantically meaningless sounds. The alphabet brought data handling to a final double-stepped abstraction. The origin of the Chinese script and the development of Mesoamerican writing are still obscure. The Mesopotamian script, however, offers a well-documented evolution over a continuous period of 10, years. The system underwent drastic changes in form, gradually transcribed spoken language more accurately, and handled data in more abstract terms.
The most striking universal feature of all writing systems, however, is their uncanny endurance, unmatched among human creations. The Chinese script never needed to be deciphered because the signs have changed little during the years of its recorded existence Xigui It also always remained ideographic, merely inserting rebus-like phonetic complements in some characters. The Mesoamerican Maya phonetic glyphs preserved the symbolism initiated by the Olmecs in the previous millennium Coe and Van Stone Finally, when the last clay tablet was written in the Near East, c.
It replaced an age-old token system that had preceded it for over years; it was replaced by the alphabet, which we have now used for years. Bagley, R. Anyang writing and the Origin of the Chinese writing system. Houston Ed. The First Writing pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baines, J. Scribes no longer drew four sheep pictographs to represent four sheep. Instead, the numeral for four was written beside one sheep pictograph.
Through this process writing was becoming disentangled from direct depiction. More complicated number systems began to develop. The pictographic symbols were refined into the writing system known as cuneiform. Eventually, writing became phonetic as well as representational. Once the writing system had moved from being pictographic to phonetic writing could communicate abstractions more effectively: names, words, and ideas.
With cuneiform, writers could tell stories, relate histories, and support the rule of kings. Cuneiform was used to record literature such as the Epic of Gilgamesh—the oldest epic still known.
Explain points of agreement experts have about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question. Explain how changes in transportation and communication technology influence the spatial connections among human settlements and affect the diffusion of ideas and cultural practices.
Analyze connections among events and developments in broader historical contexts. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant. Identify evidence that draws information from multiple sources to support claims, noting evidentiary limitations. This Crash Course World History video on Mesopotamia provides a quick, but comprehensive background to get students ready to investigate the materials and activities provided below.
This first activity will introduce students to the part of the world where writing first developed- the area once called Mesopotamia, which was located in what is today the country of Iraq. The earliest cities known today arose in Mesopotamia, an area that is part of what is sometimes called the Fertile Crescent. Then use the Geography: Explore feature to investigate a variety of maps of the region by choosing them from the pull down menu.
In this activity students will be introduced to the time period in which the first writing developed, and the major events which coincided with this development in ancient Mesopotamia.
The National Geographic. Note that the timeline covers an extended period, not all of which will be covered in detail in this lesson. This activity will give students who have not had readings about the history of the Middle East, and specifically about Mesopotamia, the opportunity to gain some contextual understanding of the development of cuneiform writing. For students who have had the opportunity to learn about Mesopotamia this exercise will remind them of some of the major events in the history of the area.
If practical you may wish to project the timeline onto a screen or redraw the timeline on the board. As a class, look through the labels. Divide the class into small groups of three or four and assign each group one of the labels.
These timelines of key events can be used by students to determine where each label should be placed and to indicate when certain innovations became important. Note: Cuneiform continued to be used in Mesopotamia well into the first millennium BCE, however, as this lesson is concentrating on the early development of the writing system the timeline in this activity will end before cuneiform writing ceased to be used.
Moving in chronological order, place the labels on the timeline. Each group should work together to provide any additional information about the development that was in the event summary. Challenge students to put together a simple narrative of developments in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley based on the events in the timeline. What developments in the civilization would have been facilitated by or even require a system of writing? In this activity students will begin to think about the development and urbanization of Mesopotamian civilization by thinking about the kinds of occupations that developed over time.
Students will also begin to think about the relationship between the evolution of civilization in Mesopotamia and how writing enhanced its development. Students have probably already studied in their classes about the shift of human societies from the nomadic pursuit of game and wild vegetation, to settled cultivation, and eventually towards settled villages, towns, and cities.
As societies became, first, more settled as farmers, and then in certain places more urbanized as some populations became townsfolk, what kinds of new tasks and jobs would need to be done? Ask students to return to their timeline worksheets. Based on what students learned from the timeline activity, what do they think are some jobs that probably existed in ancient Mesopotamia: Farmer?
Divide the class into small groups and have each group work together to create a list of jobs they believe might have existed in ancient Mesopotamia. Ask each group to contribute one job to a running list that will be written on the board. You may wish to go around the room two or three times. You can download a list of some occupations which were part of life in ancient Mesopotamia.
This is not a comprehensive list, but it will give your class an idea of what life in ancient Mesopotamia was like. You can use this list as a point of comparison with the list that the class has compiled. Students may be surprised to discover which occupations were and were not part of life in ancient Mesopotamia.
Ask students to think about the following questions:. Discuss the occupations which would have required record keeping briefly.
You may wish to discuss the role of the priestly class in ancient Mesopotamia, as elite, Mesopotamian priests had a far more expanded role in society than students may have experienced with members of the clergy today. The priests of ancient Mesopotamia were part of the ruling class, and much of the tax money that was collected went to the priests and the temples. Next, have students discuss the following questions.
You may wish to have them work together in small groups. The above video is an excerpt from the film The Cyrus Cylinder and provides an overview of the origins of cuneiform.
In addition to the historical basis for these activities, this lesson is also about the nature of written language, how it evolves and how it serves civilization. Ask the students the purposes of writing in the world today. You may wish to have them discuss questions such as:. Next, ask them to imagine that in an instant all knowledge of alphabetic writing disappeared. Only the drawing of simple pictures remained as the means of written communication.
Have the class brainstorm: What would be some of the most essential things for which you would need signs? Which objects, concepts and ideas are the ones you would make sure were standardized and learned right away? Review the list of essential signs that the class has compiled.
Have students create a few of them and draw them on the board. Discuss examples of messages relatively easy to communicate with pictographs and others that would be more difficult. Babylon is shown in the center the rectangle in the top half of the circle , and Assyria, Elam and other places are also named.
The cuneiform text describes these regions, and it seems that strange and mythical beasts as well as great heroes lived there, although the text is far from complete. The regions are shown as triangles since that was how it was visualized that they first would look when approached by water.
The map is sometimes taken as a serious example of ancient geography, but although the places are shown in their approximately correct positions, the real purpose of the map is to explain the Babylonian view of the mythological world. Thanks to Assyrian records, the chronology of Mesopotamia is relatively clear back to around B. However, before this time dating is less certain. Cuneiform tablet with observations of Venus , Neo-Assyrian, 7th century B. This tablet is one of the most important and controversial cuneiform tablets for reconstructing Mesopotamian chronology before around B.
The text of the tablet is a copy, made at Nineveh in the seventh century B. Modern astronomers have used the details of the observations in an attempt to calculate the dates of Ammisaduqa reigned B.
Ideally this process would also allow us to date the Babylonian rulers of the early second and late third millennium B. Unfortunately, however, there is much uncertainty in the dating because the records are so inconsistent. There are good arguments for each of these. Literacy was not widespread in Mesopotamia. Understanding of life in Babylonian schools is based on a group of Sumerian texts of the Old Babylonian period. These texts became part of the curriculum and were still being copied a thousand years later.
Apart from mathematics, the Babylonian scribal education concentrated on learning to write Sumerian and Akkadian using cuneiform and on learning the conventions for writing letters, contracts and accounts. Scribes were under the patronage of the Sumerian goddess Nisaba. In later times her place was taken by the god Nabu whose symbol was the stylus a cut reed used to make signs in damp clay.
The decipherment of cuneiform began in the eighteenth century as European scholars searched for proof of the places and events recorded in the Bible. Travelers, antiquaries and some of the earliest archaeologists visited the ancient Near East where they uncovered great cities such as Nineveh. They brought back a range of artifacts, including thousands of clay tablets covered in cuneiform. Scholars began the incredibly difficult job of trying to decipher these strange signs representing languages no-one had heard for thousands of years.
Gradually the cuneiform signs representing these different languages were deciphered thanks to the work of a number of dedicated people. Confirmation that they had succeeded came in The Royal Asiatic Society sent copies of a newly found clay record of the military and hunting achievements of King Tiglath-pileser I reigned B.
Fox Talbot. They each worked independently and returned translations that broadly agreed with each other.
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