A Brief Study of Logographic Writing, Polis, Plato, and Alexander

Each of the four civilizations had a system of writing. The first form of writing was developed by the Sumerians from the Tigris-Euphrates River, called cuneiform. It had about 300 symbols and was used to mark property boundaries and charts of major constellations. Usually, a wedge-shaped stylus is used on soft clay to produce cuneiform symbols. Cuneiform was later diffused into other following cultures. The Nile River Egyptians developed a different form of writing to help maintain the Egyptian empire. It was pictographic and combined with sound signs to produce hieroglyphics. Most of their writing was done papyrus, which was a fine paper produced from the stem of a water plant. The Indus River also invented their own unique alphabet, however, to this day, it has not been deciphered yet. The most sophisticated form of writing emerged from the Chinese. They came up with characters that symbolized the idea of a thing, naming it

In Ancient China, they developed a writing system for preservation. In China, people would use logograms, which are symbols that represent a word or a meaning.In the early days of the ancient Chinese civilization, people would write on oracle bone or tortoise shell.In Ancient India, writing systems were developed for recording data and information. The Indus script used signs and words and it was written from right to left. By 1800 BCE, the Indus valley civilizations started to fall and writing were often used anymore. Ancient Egyptians started to developed a writing system called, hieroglyphics because they needed a way to record important information. They believed that recording data and communicate information about government and religion was essential. Scribes were only ones to write in hieroglyphics and were written from left to right or top to bottom. In Mesopotamia, people started developing a writing system to information. Mesopotamia created a writing system called, cuneiform. Mesopotamian scribes would record important dates and event, and position of the stars. These ancient civilizations started to create their own writing system to record history and communicate information.

They organized signs in a logical manner and made the system easier to remember by naming signs after familiar objects. These improvements constituted a major jump ahead in writing systems and communication. Through the spread of ideas, people inspired by existing alphabets created new writing systems. Writing reached almost the entire world. Tales of conquest flooded the literate world: “Written accounts of earlier expeditions motivated later ones, by describing the wealth and fertile lands awaiting the conquerors. The accounts taught subsequent explorers what conditions to expect, and helped them prepare themselves” (Diamond 216). The technology involved in writing (printing presses, ink, paper, etc.) made ideas travel the world and promoted many major

Imagine a world without writing. This is an almost impossible task because our world is completely inundated with writing. How would we keep track of commerce or maintain a record of history? It is interesting to me that humans have designed ways in which to communicate to each other using symbols carved into stone. This technology has not only been shaped by the people using them, the hieroglyphics have also directly influence the societies that used them. Hieroglyphics are such an important invented technology, because it has been vital in helping to shape and record the culture of two populations living at different times and across the world: the ancient Egyptians, and the ancient Mayans. In this paper, I will discuss the intriguing similarities

Separation of powers was first introduced as a government model in ancient Greece, and was used largely in the Roman republic. Under this Government model, the state is divided into separate and independent entities. The normal

As many forms of governments emerged from the beginnings of civilization through the Post-Classical Era, many of them started to form similar ideas. In Republican Rome, people believed that there should be a division of power within the state. As in Republican Rome, Athenian Democracy also believed that their should be a division of power within the state For example, Athenians thought be be best to have the elites (free men) as citizens while Romans thought it best to have elites (patricians) as members eligible for magistrate elections. This is a similarity because although there is a difference in the

The ancient Greek polis greatly emphasized social interaction between citizens, especially in regard to political matters. In writings, a

This script dates back to the Middle Bronze Age which would be approximately 2500 BC. They have not ascertained if this was an example of proto-writing (symbols) or if it is actual writing of the syllabic type. It has been suggested this might be a mature style of writing. Historians learned about the early Chinese Shang Dynasty from 1200 BC from the written documents on bones, bronze or turtle shells. A stone slab, with 3,000 BC year old writing, was discovered in the Mexican State of Veracruz. This would be the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere. The Phoenician alphabet is basically the proto-Canaanite alphabet from the Iron Age (1050 BC). The Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet and adapted it to their own language. The tribe known as Latin (Romans) adopted writing from the Etruscans (tribe from Tiras, son of Japheth) and the Western Greeks in the fifth century. The first pure alphabet with single symbols emerged around 1800 BC in ancient Egypt. Semitic workers in Egypt developed this alphabet as a representation of language. Historians make a distinction between prehistory and the history of early writing, but have disagreed if proto-writing is considered true writing. Papyrus (reed) was the principle writing

In the centuries of rule among the ancient Greek polis, we can see examples of monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. As no city-state is alike, there are differences in how these forms existed from polis to polis. Scholars may still argue over the appropriate label for some of the forms of rule.

Nile. Although, the terrain of ancient Greece and Egypt were incomparable, geography and topography did play an essential role in the early history of these ancient civilizations. In Addition, the civilizations of Greece and Egypt both emerged as great powers in their region and prospered with their accomplishments. Greece for example experienced an Era of stability during the Archaic Age of Greece in the eighth century B.C.E.

The Polis was a unique institution formed during the Dark Ages (1100-776 BCE) in Ancient Greece following the fall of Mycenaean Civilization. The term polis can also be translated in to city-state in that each poleis was its own independent state which were generally organized in to complex hierarchical structures. Poleis were independent in several aspects such as (but not limited to): political, judicial and religious dealings. There were many notable poleis in Ancient Greek, and many of them were in their prime, were very successful however, the ideal polis was Athens. Athens was a model polis because of its political systems, economy, intellectual capital and naval strength.

In this chapter, Diamond discusses writing and the causes behind its development. Diamond explains that there were three basic strategies used to create a writing system in which signs would be used to represent sounds, words, or syllables. Few of these writing system were independently created while other were influenced by existing systems due to the difficulty of creating writing and the existence of nearby writing systems. One independently created writing the Sumerian cuneiform started with pictures depicting objects then words and was further developed when phonetic signs were used to write letters, syllables, abstract words, and determinatives. These writing systems developed as long as a society

In ancient Greek, there were several forms of government practiced at one point to the other, but some of them could not survive within the system because of the calibre of people involved at that time. A form of government could be any system recognised by the people and which stands as a guide or rule to protect and prosper a state or nation.

Is the development of the writing system the most important factor that led to the rise of a civilization? How does our ancestor learned to write when school is not even available? Understand that writing system that I am referring is not the average of using tools such as ink and paper, but more of creative tool that has developed over time. In this essay, I will cover seven points on the importantance of a writing system in the ancient civilization.

What Aristotle called ‘Polity’ was based on political power and the best practical government. This notion differed from Ancient Greek democracy.