The communication of information, from religious to secular, and from scholarly to
popular, has been important to the development of civilization. From hand writing the Bible, to
being able to print it in less than a minute, the printing press has truly changed the world. We
thank China for the first production of the printing press in the 6th century AD. The printing
press has allowed for more ideas to be shared, more widespread knowledge, and entertainment to
be expressed. This is definitely one of the greatest inventions of all time.
In the ancient past, methods of communicating information were limited. “Before the
invention of writing…information could be spread only by word of mouth, with all the
accompanying limitations of place and time” (“History of publishing”). This means that
information could only be accurately spread in small areas and over short periods of time
because the process relied on people remembering information and telling it to each other.
Writing was therefore an important development, but in the ancient world, writing was mostly
done by priests, and very few ancient cultures used writing for purposes other than religion,
recording laws, and record keeping (“History of publishing”). In the ancient Middle East, clay
tablets were often used to record written information, while in Egypt papyrus was used (“History
of publishing”). The process of writing on clay tablets was time consuming. “While the clay was
still wet,
(Hook) There have been many milestones that have changed human communication, from the invention of sign language to the development of the internet. (Bridge) One of those milestones was the Printing Press. (Background) The Printing Press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany during the year 1450. By 1500, more than 20 million books were printed.
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 start, the Sumerians invented cuneiform, which began the path to written language in the future. Cuneiform was the first written language. It was invented over 5000 years ago! (Doc. 1). They used a stylus to make imprints for writing. Written on the clay tablets it was used to keep records, document business
Ever consider what came out of the printing press when it became a big impact for people?
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
It was the start of something new and evolved throughout the entire world. In the early years, trained scribes would spend months if not years rewriting scriptures and texts. Due to that, books were tremendously expensive and scarce. Every copy of the book must be handwritten.
The Sumerians made earth tablets and a slice reed stylus to record the cuneiform content (Matthews, Noble & Platt, 2014). Just a little gathering of educated, profoundly prepared copyists could record data utilizing the content, because of its trouble. However, for over five thousand years back the Sumerians, utilizing their cuneiform arrangement of composing, recorded business exchanges and additionally epic verse on mud tablets (Molholm, K. N. (2004). For the thousands of years that have tailed we have enhanced our techniques for correspondence with
An important technological advancement in the history of mankind was the invention of writing language. Known as cuneiform at the time, its origination hailed from a place in southern Mesopotamia called Sumer in 3500-3000 BCE. The process during its invention involved making markings in wet clay with a reed-like instrument. The reason for its invention was for the flourishment of commerce. The Sumerians needed a way to communicate with merchants and customers from between large expanses of land and sea. They used pictographs in order to scale the quantity of resources required in the trade and represent different objects. To communicate ideas more complex than financial transactions or lists and quantities, a more elaborate writing system was
Throughout the past there have been countless number of innovations, inventions, and discoveries that shaped the human world. One of these magnificent inventions was the Printing Press. A printing press is a machine for printing ink onto a substrate (print medium) such as paper or cloth. The device applies pressure to a substrate that rests on an inked surface made of movable type, then transferring the ink. Usually used for making texts, the invention and the spread of the printing press are widely considered as among the most influential events in human history, revolutionizing the way people look at the world they live in. Without it, we could still be hand writing all the books we have today. The Printing Press was created around the year 1440 by Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (aka Johann Gutenberg). He was a German blacksmith,
2. Permanent records – Writing played a vital role in the earliest civilization. It was first developed by the people of Sumeria. However, writing is not always necessary for civilization.
Not to mention the beloved machine known as the Xerox that creates instant, photographed duplicates of virtually anything on paper. Even when an author is writing a novel, they are afforded the opportunity to use a word processor in which they can input their ideas directly into a machine that is capable of checking their spelling and grammar within a few seconds of the command. And the luxury of having a button that instantly gives synonyms for words that they are at a loss for. How much easier can writing be?! In this time where such lovely machines play such a huge role in our everyday life, it’s so easy to forget that the human race still reigned this planet without their use. Meaning, life went on. Humans did the same things two thousand years ago that we do now. Events were probably modified a bit, but the typical things that humans do today had to have been done long ago, without the comfort of technology as we now know it.
The printing press was an interesting and world changing machine that was used for the mass production of written works for distribution. Such a revolutionary process actually worked through an easy process that included only a few steps. First, every letter had to have been carved into a steel object known as a punch. These punches were eventually hammered into a piece of copper otherwise known as a blank. The blank was used as a mold for a mixture of molten alloys created by Gutenberg who was once a stonecutter and a goldsmith; the mixture consisted of lead, antimony and bismuth. This mixture of metals created an alloy that was easily cooled and handled, but strong enough not to wear down over repeated use. In their creation, the base sizes for the letters had to be determined and marked out ahead of time. Wider letters had wider basis, such as the difference between a capital z and a lower case l. The blocks
The most well-accepted theory for the idea of tablets is that they developed due to the increasing economic complexity of Mesopotamian city states. For instance, there was probably a growing need to calculate, especially when trading with neighboring peoples. Similar to how Paleolithic hunter-gatherers might have drew on cave walls to capture the essence of an important event (such as a hunt), the city dwellers of Mesopotamia turned to clay tablets to perform these critical calculations. The people most likely chose the material clay out of several reasons, including the facts that clay was the most abundant natural resource and was furthermore easy to mark, perpetuate, and erase.
(Hook) There have been many milestones that have changed human communication, from the invention of sign language to the development of the internet. (Bridge) One of those milestones was the Printing Press. (Background) The Printing Press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany during the year 1450. By 1500, more than 20 million books were printed. The Printing press made books cheaper and increased the literacy rate in Europe. More people started to take interest in other subjects such as science, geography and religion. The Printing Press also resulted in two consequences: The Protestant Reformation and the Age of Exploration. (Thesis) I believe that the Age of Exploration was the more important result of the Printing Press.
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.