How Writing Is Important For The Creation Of Organized Societies

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

When the civilizations were first invented, there was a lot of chaos and confusion. This led to the invention of the different forms of writing. Each civilization had a form of writing for

Mesopotamian Civilizations contributed massively to the development for future civilizations. To begin, the Sumerians created the first written language. Cuneiform was the writing system to keep track of business dealings when it comes to trading with the people who lived in lands that were thousands of miles away. Cuneiform also kept records and allowed new ideas to be passed from generation to generation (Doc 1). Cuneiform is developed from pictographs that were sideways and used

- After the invention of paper, the Chinese also began to use it for wrapping

Mesopotamia’s first invention was a form of writing called cuneiform which was written on clay tablets with a sharp reed called a stylus. This permitted for recording events and

Mesopotamia developed a form of writing known as cuneiform. Their writing evolved from pictures into signs. Mesopotamians used writing mainly for record keeping. They would put business transactions into writing and had a written code of law. They also had literature like The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic of Gilgamesh is about one of the earliest passions of man, the search for eternal life. The Mesopotamians had a school for writing because they wanted trained scribes for

The first form of writing was created by Sumerians 5,000 years ago called Cuneiform (Document 1). Sumerians used this writing system to keep track of business dealings because they traded with people who lived in lands that were hundreds and even thousands of miles away (Doc. 2). With a written language, ideas could be shared from generation to generation (Doc. 1). To write in cuneiform somebody would need to acquire a clay tablet, then bake it hard in a kiln (Doc. 1). If cuneiform had not been created, there may have not been written languages in the

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.

Mesopotamia is credited for inventing the first written language and the first written laws. Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia needed an efficient way to keep track of their business dealings with other people who lived thousands of miles away. The people often could not remember or agree upon what they had traded; this led to nasty disputes. As a result,the Sumerians created Cuneiform, the first written language. It was quickly accepted and widely used throughout Mesopotamia.

In Mesopotamia, people had no money so they traded barley, pottery, fish, and other foods and inventions they made. They needed a way to keep up with what they traded, so Sumerians created the first form of writing over 5000 years ago which they called Cuneiform. They used Cuneiform for business dealings such as trading barley, keeping records, and new ideas changed between different generations.

According to Carr, writing began in the year 8000 BC, when people would use small clay tokens that were engraved with symbols as a way to keep track of livestock and goods (Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains). Then during the end of the fourth century BC, the Sumerians and Egyptians both developed their own systems of writings called cuneiform and hieroglyphs respectively. Cuneiform was a system of wedge-shaped characters whereas hieroglyphs was a system of symbols. Both incorporated what is called logosyllabic characters, characters that denoted not just things, but speech sounds too. This meant that both the reader and the writer had to work extra hard to interpret the meaning of each character. As a result, reading and writing cuneiform and hieroglyphs became so mentally stressful that its use was soon restricted to the intellectual elite who had both the time and brain power to read and write the respective system (Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains). Then around 750 BC, everything changed. It was around this time that the Greeks developed the very first phonetic alphabet with vowel sounds and consonant sounds. Also, through the analyzation of all of the sounds used in spoken language, the Greeks were the first to be able to

However, the act of interacting with the spiritual world was impossible without the early uses of writing. The initial early uses of writing were to record religious ideas and events that had taken place. Some examples of the first early uses of writing were seen in the oracle-bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, the ritual bronze inscriptions in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the metal bound box during the Zhou dynasty. The need for record keeping and procedures for religious performance resulted in a large necessitation of literacy to continue these practices, especially for individuals of higher social standings.

To begin, the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia introduced the first forms of written language-Cuneiform. The beginning of writing was an essential tool that transferred thoughts and speech into text. It was extremely important and allowed for the beginning of record keeping of all sorts. “At this point, writing was used only for record keeping, and thus only concrete words(nouns) such as “ox”,”grain” and “sheep” were needed. As society became more complex, the language evolved enabling signs to be used…and eventually abstract thoughts “(Newman 44). The world came to know a unique way of expressing thoughts and learned to convey messages through writing. From then on, records could be kept, history and stories could be recorded and abstract thinking could shine

Discovery of clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform proved that the Mesopotamian civilization were able to communicate through written pictures and stylized signs, this was used for purpose of record keeping and schools to teach cuneiform.

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.