Ancient Writing Systems

What makes a Civilization a Civilization? You need 5 things… Agriculture - Surplus Advanced cities Specialized workers Complex institutions Record keeping Advanced technology

Sumerians The earliest known civilization was that of the Sumerians They were located in modern day Iraq on the Tigris and Euphrates River As their government, religion, and economy became more complex, they realized a need for record keeping

Writing System #1 - Cuneiform The earliest forms of writing were actually pictures – these were called pictographs Sumerians developed a more complex system called cuneiform Not everyone could write the new language, so a certain group of people called scribes kept records The scribes tool was called a stylus, which was a sharp tool with a wedge point They pressed their writing into moist clay and left it in the sun to bake and harden

Why did they need writing? Government officials had to keep tax records They had to document their laws Priests needed a way to keep track of their religious calendars and important rituals Merchants had to record transactions Later, people would use writing to record events – this evolved into history

Writing System #2 - Hieroglyphics Similar to the Sumerians, the Egyptians also first used pictures to express words Later they developed a more complex system called hieroglyphics At first, hieroglyphics were written on clay, but the Egyptians soon developed a better method called papyrus Egyptians also developed a system of written numbers for counting, adding, and subtracting They also developed early forms of geometry

Writing System #3 – The Phoenician Alphabet About 100BC, the most powerful traders along the Mediterranean Sea were the Phoenicians They never united as a country, but instead had founded a number of different city-states along the water They were remarkable shipbuilders and seafarers

Their Alphabet Because they were merchants and traders, the Phoenicians needed an accurate and easy way to record their transactions They developed a writing system that used symbols to represent sounds This system is called “phonetic” In fact, the word “alphabet” comes from the first 2 letters in their alphabet

As they traveled around the Mediterranean region, they spread their alphabet The Greeks would later adopt it and add to it That is where we got our alphabet