Mesopotamia Cuneiform

One of the many differences Mesopotamia and Egypt differ in is their writing systems. Ancient Egypt used Hieroglyphics that is based on pictures which expressed ideas and was widely used in businesses because not all the people were literate. This writing can be used to spell out words by sound. In Mesopotamia the Sumerians invented cuneiform, which was most widely used and was written on clay tablets which were left in the sun to dry. This way the tablets would last a long time, although it wasn’t the most effective to use for simple messages.which will affect later on how they communicate. WIth it However great literature was produced to show works such as the "Epic of Gilgamesh” known as the earliest story we know of.

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 river valley civilizations developed writing systems. Each writing system was unique, but they also had similarities between them. The people from Mesopotamia had a writing system called “cuneiform.” The Egyptians had a writing system called “hieroglyphics.” Cuneiform was a writing system based on pictures (3.) Just like cuneiform, hieroglyphics was also based on pictures (11.) Both writing systems presented objects or ideas. Also, they were both carved into stone.

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.

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

Cuneiform is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians. Cuneiform writing is traced back from c. 3500 - 3000 BC. The writing wasn 't first actually words. They used pictographs for writing in their records. Instead of writing letters “s-u-n”, a Sumerian would imprint a pictograph of what they had as a sun on a clay tablet. Also,

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

1) Cuneiform writing is known to be an ancient writing system and was created when early civilizations needed a way to keep record of events that has happened year to year such as; grains produced last year, the livestock that they had and the total cost of livestock. The system was discovered in 500 BCE by the Sumerians and Mesopotamians. The use of Cuneiform writing led to more advanced forms of writing as the years went on, it broadened their minds and later lead to the use of papyrus as a means for portable media. 2) The printing press was such an important and revolutionary development because it allowed books to be mass produced, before the printing press all books had to be hand written.

The Sumerians create the world’s first written language, cuneiform script. They used this for business dealings, written records, and making trade easier. These written ideas were written on clay tablets, and baked in a kiln. This writing was a giant leap forward in the development of their civilization. Mesopotamia warrior, Hammurabi, created Hammurabi’s Code in 1754 B.C. This code was written on a huge, stone monument.

As earlier stated, cuneiform was the first thing invented during this time. It was the first written language, created by the Sumerians, and it has helped with everyone’s life since then. The Sumerians used it to keep records, help with trade, and pass down new ideas that they had. Cuneiform later led to the use of hieroglyphics. They were a system of writing that was created by the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphics were different from cuneiform in the way that they were pictures that represented objects and ideas but could also stand for sounds. The Egyptians also created papyrus, or the first form of paper, to write the hieroglyphics on.

The first examples of writing were pictograms used by temple officials to keep track of the inflows and outflows of the city's grain and animal stores which, in the bigger Sumerian urban centers such as Ur, were big enough to make counting by memory unreliable.

The ancient Sumerians developed the first actual language, called cuneiform. Before it was a worded written language, it was in the form of pictographs, which are pictures that symbolize something. As that concept evolved more and more, the Sumerians started using triangular shapes to show sounds, which started the concept of spelling letters. The Babylonians and Assyrians used cuneiform as well. As many more civilizations came, the symbols or alphabets evolved and changed to eventually what we know today as our English