The invention of writing Prehistoric art: first appears 40,000 BCE…

1. The invention of writing Prehistoric art: first appears 40,000 BCE… Sumerian tokens are used between 8,500 BCE to 3,100 BCE and cuneiform writing on clay (and stone) is used between 3,400 BCE to 75 CE Egyptian hieroglyphs and hieratic writing are used between 3,300 BCE to 394 CE

2. Bulla with string of complex counting tokens, Mesopotamia (Sumerian), 3,500 to 3,200 BCE; bulla is 2.5 x 6.5 cm Complex counting tokens (oil jar and textiles), Mesopotamia (Sumerian), 4,000 to 3,200 BCE, 2 cm each Lionesses from Chauvet Cave, France, c. 31,000 BCE (Prehistoric—no writing) Cuneiform Tablet, Mesopotamia (Neo-Sumerian), c. 2029 BCE, 4 5/8 x 2 1/8 x 1 in The “Edwin Smith” medical papyrus, written with black and red ink in Egyptian hieratic script in about 1600 BCE Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia (Babylonian), c. 1772 BCE, diorite, 7' 5" x 1' 10" Palette of Narmer, both sides, c. 3,100 BCE, Egyptian, slate siltstone, 2 feet tall—the oldest surviving object that includes writing Book of the Dead for Hunefer, detail of an Egyptian papyrus scroll using hieroglyphs, c. 1275 BCE Rosetta Stone, c. 196 BCE, with Egyptian hieroglyphs, hieratic and Greek scripts

3. The beginning of human settlements, c. 8,500 BCE: Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Shang China

4. Around 3100 BCE Sumerians in Mesopotamia use a cuneiform script and Egyptians use hieroglyphs. 2600 BCE Indians use an Indus Valley script, probably derived from the Sumerians, which disappears around 1800 BCE. 1700 BCE Canaanites develop the first true abjad, which is spread by the Phoenicians. 1300 BCE The earliest form of writing in China appears on oracle bones. 740 BCE The earliest examples of Greek writing appears. The Greeks transform the Phoenician abjad by adding the first letters representingvowels, thus creating the first alphabet. 200 CE The earliest existing examples of Mayan writing appear in the Americas.

5. 1300 BCE The earliest form of writing in China appears in the area of the Yellow River, on oracle bones. Questions were written on the bones, usually the scapula of an ox or the shell of a turtle and then heated until it cracked. Then an oracle would interpret the cracks.

6. Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is Greek for the place between two rivers: the Euphrates and the Tigris. Some of the world’s earliest writing occurred here, along the rivers fed by streams that originate in the Zagros Mountains. Cuneiform Tablet, Mesopotamia (Neo-Sumerian), c. 2029 BCE, 4 5/8 x 2 1/8 x 1 in

7. Sumerian Art (3,200 to 2,600 BCE) White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, (Warka, Iraq), 3,200-3,000 BCE In addition to being one of the first cities anywhere, Uruk was the main force of urbanization during the Uruk period (4000–3200 BC). This period of 800 years saw a shift from small, agricultural villages to a larger urban center with a full-time bureaucracy, military, and stratified society. This level of urbanization is only possible because of the invention of writing.

8. Reconstruction drawing White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, (Warka, Iraq), 3,200-3,000 BCE The Mesopotamian cultures built their cities out of mud (brick), which came from their rivers. Plan of the White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, (Warka, Iraq), 3,200-3,000 BCE

9. Reconstruction drawing Mud brick construction for their architecture White Temple and ziggurat at Uruk, (Warka, Iraq), 3,200-3,000 BCE

10. According to Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website… • Writing "took off" as the need for more permanent accounting practices became evident with the rapid growth of large cities with mixed populations at the end of the fourth millennium B.C. Clay became the preferred medium for recording bureaucratic items as it was abundant, cheap, and durable in comparison to other mediums. Initially, a reed or stick was used to draw pictographs and abstract signs into moistened clay. Over time, pictographic representation was replaced with wedge-shaped signs, formed by impressing the tip of a reed or wood stylus into the surface of a clay tablet. Modern (nineteenth-century) scholars called this type of writing cuneiform after the Latin term for wedge, cuneus. • Ira Spar. "The Origins of Writing". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wrtg/hd_wrtg.htm (originally published October 2004, last revised April 2009) Mud brick construction Detail from the prologue of the Code of Hammurabi (the 305 first text squares on the stele), cuneiform, c. 1780 BCE.

11. clay tokens > abstract numbers > cuneiform writing > mathematics NEOLITHIC PLAIN COUNTING TOKENS POSSIBLY REPRESENTING 1 MEASURE OF GRAIN, 1 ANIMAL AND 1 MAN OR 1 DAY'S LABOR, c. 8,000 to 3,500 BCE, 1 x 4 cm each, Schoyen collection Clay tokens were invented by the people of Mesopotamia around 8000 BCE to keep track of debts that resulted from the exchange of commodities such as wheat or cloth. They took on all of the basic geometric forms, such as spheres, tetrahedrons, cones, cylinders, discs, quadrangles, triangles, etc. These plain counting tokens were used for 5000 years prior to the invention of abstract numbers, which lead to cuneiform writing about 3300 BC, and then to the study of mathematics ca. 2,600 BCE. http://www.schoyencollection.com/mathematics-collection/pre-literate-counting/neolithic-counting-tokens-ms-5067-1-8

12. Neolithic plan counting tokens, c. 8000—3500 BCE

13. COMPLEX COUNTING TOKENS REPRESENTING 1 JAR OF OIL and VARIOUS TEXTILES, c. 4,000 to 3,200 BCE, 2 cm each, Schoyen collection The complex tokens were a natural development from the plain tokens with new forms, added lines, dots and various designs to cover the more advanced accounting needs. They lasted until ca. 3200 BC, when they were superseded by counting tablets and pictographic tablets. Some of the earliest tablets have actual tokens impressed into the clay to form numbers and pictographs, and many of the pictographs were illustrations of tokens. http://www.schoyencollection.com/mathematics-collection/pre-literate-counting/complex-counting-tokens-ms-4522-1

15. When tokens were invented, they were first kept in baskets, leather poaches, clay bowls, etc., and later within clay bullas and on strings.

16. BULLA-ENVELOPE WITH 11 PLAIN AND COMPLEX TOKENS INSIDE, REPRESENTING AN ACCOUNT OR AGREEMENT, TENTATIVELY OF WAGES FOR 4 DAYS' WORK, 4 MEASURES OF METAL, 1 LARGE MEASURE OF BARLEY AND 2 SMALL MEASURES OF SOME OTHER COMMODITY, ca. 3700-3200 BC, diam. ca. 6.5 cm, Schoyen Collection The invention of “bulla” envelopes where tokens representing a delinquent account could be kept safely until the debt was paid. The tokens standing for the amounts due were placed in hollow clay balls and, in order to show the content of the envelopes, the accountants created markings by impressing the tokens on the wet clay surface before enclosing them. The cylinder seal impressions of a row of men walking left, etc., indicated the parties involved in the transaction. https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/tokens-and-writing-the-cognitive-development/ X ray of unopened bulla reveals tokens, some apparently cones and others ovoids, Schoyen collection. Only 70 bullae survive intact.

17. Cylinder seal with schematic workers, 3300–2900 BCE (and modern impression in clay), Southern Mesopotamia, Rock crystal, Metropolitan Museum of Art Cylinder seals are usually carved stones that leave an impression when rolled onto a slab of clay. Since each seal is unique, it represents the unique individual who would wear it on a string around his neck.

18. BULLA FOR HOLDING A STRING OF COMPLEX COUNTING TOKENS CONCERNING A TRANSACTION, c. 3,500 to 3,200 BCE, 2.5 x 6.5 cm, Schoyen collection The bulla on the left shows evidence that it originally locked the ends of a string with a number of complex counting tokens attached to it, representing one transaction. The string with the tokens was hanging outside the bulla like a necklace. If the string had, say, five disk type tokens representing types of textiles, this number could not be tampered with without breaking the seal. This explains why some complex tokens have holes pierced through them. http://en.finaly.org/index.php/Two_precursors_of_writing:_plain_and_complex_tokens

19. BULLA FOR HOLDING A STRING OF COMPLEX COUNTING TOKENS CONCERNING A TRANSACTION, c. 3,500 to 3,200 BCE, 2.5 x 6.5 cm, Schoyen collection A Babylonian tablet inscribedwith the directions for brewing beer(c. 3100 BCE) The Babylonians, who lived in Mesopotamia, invented abstract numbers around 3200 BCE, just before they invented writing. An earlier account of fourteen jars of oil would just be fourteen tokens of the present type. After the invention of abstract numbers, fourteen jars would be substituted by the number fourteen and the pictograph of a jar with lid looking similar to the token.

20. A Babylonian tablet inscribedwith the directions for brewing beer(c. 3100 BCE) Tokens helped to develop the first counting system, which predates abstract writing. For example, a cone shape originally stood for a small measure of grain and a sphere stood for a large measure of grain. They came to represent the abstract concepts ofone and ten of anything. This was the first visual code, the oldest abstract symbol (ideogram) system created for communicating. An ideogram is a written character symbolizing the idea of a thing (such as the number 1) without indicating the sounds used to say it.

21. Pictographic tablet featuring an account of 33 measures of oil, (circular = 10, wedges = 1) from Godin Tepe, Iran, ca. 3100 B.C. A Babylonian tablet inscribedwith the directions for brewing beer(c. 3100 BCE) A symbol is an image that represents something else without resembling it—the way that the American flag represents America without looking anything like it. Numerical ideograms are symbols that indicate numbers without looking like or sounding like the numbers that they represent. Complex counting token of an oil jar. Mesopotamia, 4,000 to 3,200 BCE

22. Pictographic tablet featuring an account of 33 measures of oil, (circular = 10, wedges = 1) from Godin Tepe, Iran, ca. 3100 B.C. Over time, tokens that resembled the things they represented (oil jar) became more and more abstract and symbolic (sideways V crossed twice with vertical lines). Complex counting token of an oil jar. Mesopotamia, 4,000 to 3,200 BCE

23. Stages lead to the development of cuneiform for the sign SAG, meaning "head": 1 shows the pictogram as it was drawn around 3000 BCE 2 shows the rotated pictogram as written around 2800 BCE 3 shows the abstracted glyph in archaic monumental inscriptions, from c. 2600 BCE 4 is the sign as written in clay, also around 2600 BCE 5 represents the late 3rd millennium BCE 6 represents Old Assyrian ductus of the early 2nd millennium, as adopted into Hittite 7 is the simplified sign as written by Assyrian scribes in the early 1st millennium BCE, and until the script's extinction. Shape of the stylus end that creates Neo-Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform writing. Cuneiform tablet impressed with cylinder seal: balanced account of barley, Mesopotamia (Neo-Sumerian), c. 2029 BCE, 4 5/8 x 2 1/8 x 1 in

24. About 3000 BC, the state bureaucracy seems to have required that the names of people involved in trades be entered on the tablets rather than just their cylinder seal. To record the personal name of these individuals, new signs were created that stood for the sounds of their names – phonograms. For this purpose, the Sumerians adopted what we refer to today as “the rebus principle.” In English, a rebus might be the image of an eye followed by the images of a tin, a wavy sea, and a baby sheep. We could read these pictograms as a rebus: “I can see you.” In cuneiform, a drawing of a man stood for the sound (syllable) “lu” and a drawing of a mouth stood for the syllable “ka.” Written as a rebus, the two signs, man-mouth, would become the phonetic sign for the man’s name, “Luca.” A syllable is a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound that is often combined with various consonant sounds, forming the whole or a part of a word. For example, there are two syllables in water and three in inferno. Only a few examples of the use of the rebus principle exist in the earliest stages of cuneiform writing from between 3200 and 3000 B.C. The consistent use of this type of phonetic writing only becomes apparent after 2600 B.C. The Rebus Principle, video, 3:00 (KU-SHIM Tablet) Lu = man Ka = mouth

25. Here are a few of the Sumerian cuneiform syllables: To compose your Sumerian truism, you can find the Sumerian syllabary at this website: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sumerian.htm

26. The French archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat, who discovered these developments, has concluded that the Sumerians believed that the name of a deceased individual was to be spoken aloud at regular intervals to sustain him in the underworld. The writing of Meskalamdug’s name on a gold bowl that was buried with him suggests that writing the sounds of his name was deemed equivalent to speaking the name aloud—and thus guaranteeing the survival of the dead. Sumer king Meskalamdug’s gold bowl, c. 2700 BCE, inscribed with his name Denise Schmandt-Besserat

27. The first extended text that has been preserved using cuneiform, and the last object with cuneiform that we will look at in this course is the Stele of the Code (or Laws) of King Hammurabi, which dates to about 1770 BCE. Smart History Video, 3:17 Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia (Babylonian), c. 1772 BCE

28. Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia (Babylonian), c. 1772 BCE Note the writing convention here: Each word is confined within a rectangle.

29. Prologue of the Code of Hammurabi (the 305 first text squares on the stele), cuneiform, c. 1780 BCE. Among the 282 laws were: • If someone is careless when watering his fields, and he floods someone else's by accident, he will pay for the grain he has ruined. • If a man wants to throw his son out of the house, he has to go before a judge and say, "I don't want my son to live in my house any more." The judge will find out the reasons. If the reasons are not good, the man can't throw his son out. • If the son has done some great evil to his father, his father must forgive him the first time. But if he has done something evil twice, his father can throw him out. • If a thief steals a cow, a sheep, a donkey, a pig, or a goat, he will pay ten times what it is worth. If he doesn't have any money to pay with, he will be put to death. • If a man puts out the eye of another man, put his own eye out. If he knocks out another man's tooth, knock out his own tooth. If he breaks another man's bone, break his own bone. • If a doctor operates on a patient and the patient dies, the doctor's hand will be cut off. • If a builder builds a house, and that house collapses and kills the owner's son, the builder's son will be put to death. • If a robber is caught breaking a hole into the house so that he can get in and steal, he will be put to death in front of that hole. • If a son strikes his own father, his hands shall be cut off. Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia (Babylonian), c. 1772 BCE

30. Mesopotamia and Egypt Palette of Narmer, c. 3,100 BCE, Egyptian, slate siltstone, 2 feet tall

31. Bulla with string of complex counting tokens, Mesopotamia (Sumerian), 3,500 to 3,200 BCE Complex counting tokens (oil jar and textiles), Mesopotamia (Sumerian), 4,000 to 3,200 BCE Lionesses from Chauvet Cave, France, c. 31,000 BCE (Prehistoric) Cuneiform Tablet, Mesopotamia (Neo-Sumerian), c. 2029 BCE, 4 5/8 x 2 1/8 x 1 in The “Edwin Smith” medical papyrus, written with black and red ink in Egyptian hieratic script in about 1600 BCE Code of Hammurabi, Mesopotamia (Babylonian), c. 1772 BCE, diorite, 7' 5" x 1' 10" Palette of Narmer, both sides, c. 3,100 BCE, Egyptian, slate siltstone, 2 feet tall Book of the Dead for Hunefer, detail of an Egyptian papyrus scroll using hieroglyphs, c. 1275 BCE Rosetta Stone, c. 196 BCE, with Egyptian hieroglyphs, hieratic and Greek scripts