DO NOW…PLEASE QUIETLY 1.Take out SOCIAL STUDIES notebook 2.Clear off everything else. 3.Put names & date of each paper on your desk 3. In the DO NOW section of your notebook answer this: Why do cultures/societies need a form of written language?

CUNEIFORM was developed in Mesopotamia around 3100 B.C.

RECORD KEEPING (notice I didn’t say writing)!!!!

EARLIEST WRITING The earliest form of Sumerian writing was made of PICTOGRAMS / PICTOGRAPHS Pictographs were simple pictures / symbols that represented a single object and were used to record records of farm animals and crops BARLEY

INVENTION OF WRITING By around 3100 B.C., record keeping developed into writing. Eventually, scribes combined symbols to make groups of wedges & lines known as cuneiform. Cuneiform script could represent different languages. Very useful in land of many peoples!

CUNEIFORM A combination of symbols, lines and wedges Developed to convey IDEAS as well as facts Symbols changed over time. Didn’t borrow ideas from other civilizations

Symbols set in rows Each row read left to right Page read top to bottom

SCRIBES A scribe was an educated person who was schooled for 12 years! Could read & write Highly respected & valuable Some were given special government assignments Kept records of: Taxes, sales, trades, marriages, deaths, gifts to gods

Ancient “Paper” Clay provided by Tigris & Euphrates Spring rivers washed clay down from mountains Scribes shaped soft, wet clay into smooth flat tablets. Size of tablet depended on its purpose Letters marked in clay with sharp tools Clay dried and became permanent record

I DON’T HAVE A PENCIL ! Neither did the scribes….. A stylus made from reeds left by the rivers, was Sliced at an angle at the bottom. Then later made changed in order to put holes and indents (wedges)

Activity Guidelines: 1.Listen to all directions 2.Stylus is NOT to be pointed at anyone 3. Your message MUST be SCHOOL APPROPRIATE! 4. Please keep clay in 1 piece… 5. Clay MAY NOT LEAVE the classroom in any form.

HOMEWORK Read each question carefully, and answer in complete sentences What was the first form of record keeping used by the Sumerians? Why were changes in made in the original writing method that was used by the Sumerians? What did the size of the clay tablet have to do with what was being written?