1. Mesopotamia – Egypt – Indus Valley Shang – Olmec – Chavin - Aegean
WRITING SYSTEMS
Mesopotamia – Egypt – Indus Valley
Shang – Olmec – Chavin - Aegean

2. Similarities Across Civilizations
Early writing in pictures, lines, and symbols
Represent sounds or words
Monopolized by scribes
Mostly used in government
Sometimes commoners had own writing systems
Languages have been deciphered from civilizations with extensive trading contacts
Mesopotamia & Egypt
Bilingual texts available
Some languages still undeciphered
Indus Valley, Olmec, Chavin, Minoan

3. Mesopotamian Cuneiform
First written language
3500BCE
Emerged similar in time to Egyptian hieroglyphics
Representational at first
Bull = picture of bull
Pictograph of barley = barley
Inconvenient for writing other than nouns & increasingly abstract
Functioned both phonetically (sounds) and semantically (object or concept)
Composed of wedges
Accomplishments
First written law
Epic of Gilgamesh

4. Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Unlike Mesopotamia, Egyptians didn’t simplify hieroglyphs
Used mainly by priests
Hieratic
Used for conducting day-to-day business
Picture signs abbreviated
Written in rows or columns
Read right to left or left to right, depending on what way humans or animals are facing
Four categories
Alphabetic – single sound
Syllabic – combination of two or three consonatns
Word-signs – pictures of objects
Determinative – picture of an object that helps the reader

5. Indus Valley
Writing samples are 2,000 inscribed seals in legible conditions
Seals – used to make impressions on malleable material like clay
Difficult to decipher
Very short, brief texts
Language beneath seals is unknown
Lack of bilingual texts
Theories
Language unrelated to anything else
Language is “Aryan” (Indian-Iranian or Indo-European)
Language belongs to Munda family like other SE Asian families
Dravidian (spoken in Southern India)

6. Shang
Examples on oracle bones – priests interpreted cracks formed by holes & punched bones; write down history of dynasty
Ancestor of modern Chinese writing system
Symbols or characters for each word
Never became purely phonetic system like the Roman alphabet
Required learning to recognize & write several thousand characters
Highly specialized skill

7. Olmec & Chavin No common writing system
Symbols & inscriptions on pillars and artwork indecipherable today

8. Minoan & Mycenaean Minoan writing system undeciphered
Information from Mycenae written on clay tablets
Linear B – uses pictorial signs to represent syllables
Early form of Greek
Palace administrators kept records of animals, people, and objects
Reveal little about political & legal system, social structure, gender relations, or religious beliefs

9. Questions for Consideration
Why is a writing system a requirement for being a civilization?
How does the ability to read and write impact social structure?
How is history limited by written records?

10. Resources http://www.ancient.eu.com/cuneiform/
Hieroglyphic-Alphabet.html