reflection paper#6

The invention of writing is so crucial to the establishment of the world’s great ancient civilization because writing provided a way of extending human memory by imprinting information into media less erratic than the human brain. During the time when humans created relics and artifacts, the need for teaching others how to use those artifacts became necessary. If modern humans such as San in South West Africa and Cro Magnon in southwest Europe did not begin drawing pictures 40,000 years ago artifacts would not have been revealed in the human mind. A form of script identified as cuneiform was invented in 3200BC by the Sumerians and flourished between the 3100BC to 2000BC. This writing fell into abandonment after this time had gone by yet scholars achieved in decoding it last century and today we that are just finding out about cuneiform writing can examine all of the many thousands of extant cuneiform inscriptions. The name cuneiform means “wedge shaped”. About 9000 years ago, Farmers used tokens marked with plain pictures to label basic farm manufacture. With the increase in technology of cities and urban centers of manufacture 6000 years ago, more intricate pictographic tokens were also devised to label manufactured goods. Eventually, the tokens were replaced by impressions made on clay tablets. The simple tokens used to indicate farm goods gave rise to the practice of pressing tokens into the clay tablets to produce a raised picture. Tokens were used to denote manufactured goods, drawn on the clay tablets with a rounded reed, were called a stylus (pen-shaped instruments used in drawing or artwork). The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, therefore giving augment to the name cuneiform, wedge-writing. Another element of writing used by the Sumerians was pictographic impressions. These impressions were used as remembrance aids in the recording of financially viable data. Some words in the Sumerian language were spelled alike but had no commonsense connection in meaning. Only when looking at the sound of the Sumerian language does the reason for using the pictograph in any way become understandable. In becoming sound symbols, most pictographs began to be stylized and lost their iconographic form altogether. Numerous examples of true writing in the Sumerian cuneiform syllabify have been found that date after 3000BC. Overall I believe that the invention of writing played a very important role in the establishment of the world’s great ancient civilization. If writing were not invented writing forms such as the ones just mentioned in my reflection and many others would not have been in existence.