1 / 6

Cuneiform : The World ’ s First Writing System

Cuneiform : The World ’ s First Writing System. Pictograph Definition: A picture that stands for a word or idea; picture writing . Why did the Sumerians invent writing? 1. Merchants and traders needed a way to keep track of what they bought and sold .

zaina
Download Presentation

Cuneiform : The World ’ s First Writing System

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Cuneiform: The World’s First Writing System

  2. Pictograph • Definition: A picture that stands for a word or idea; picture writing. • Why did the Sumerians invent writing? • 1.Merchants and traders needed a way to keep track of • what they bought and sold. • 2. One of the first pictographs was for the grain, barley.

  3. Barley • What is the relationship between the way our word “barley” looks and barley itself? • How do we know that the symbols which make up the word represent grain?

  4. Cuneiform • Definition: Wedge-shaped characters made • with a reed stylus. • The Sumerians used a sharpened reed, called a stylus, • to draw pictures on clay.

  5. Around 2500 B.C., writers had simplified their symbols. They no longer looked like pictures and were used to represent sounds.

  6. Cuneiform consisted of 600 symbols. • People could now easily express themselves through writing. They began keeping records of: • wars and treaties • epic stories and poems (Story of Gilgamesh) • astronomy F. A new job was created called a scribe- A professional writer or record-keeper whose job was to copy documents and manuscripts.

More Related