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CHRONOLOGY OF THE MESOPOTAMIAN PEOPLES.
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE MESOPOTAMIAN PEOPLES • Early Sumerian Settlements 3500 - 3200 Writing before 3500 Royal Cemetery, First Dynasty Ur 2700Sargon the Great of Akkad 2340Amorite Invasion (Old Babylonians) 2000Gilgamesh composed 2000Hammurabi’s reign 1792-1750Hittites conquer Amorites and retreat to Asia Minor 1595 Kassites control Mesopotamia 1500-1000Hittite Empire is destroyed Ca. 1200Assyrian Empire 1100 - 612Assyrian conquest of Mesopotamia 665Chaldean Empire 612 - 538Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem and brings Jews to Babylon 586 Persians defeat Chaldeans 539
Climate and Geography • Mesopotamia. The word 'Mesopotamia' is Greek in origin and means the 'land between the rivers'. • The name is used for the area watered by the Euphrates and Tigris and its tributaries, roughly comprising modern Iraq and part of Syria. • South of modern Bagdad, the alluvial plains of the rivers were called the land of Sumer and Akkad. • Sumer is the most southern part, while the land of Akkad is the area around modern Bagdad, where the Euphrates and Tigris are close to each other.
The Rivers • Man have been attracted to both rivers since prehistoric times. • As water ways they make inland navigation possible. • The rivers yearly flood its banks, producing fertile land. • The character of Euphrates and Tigris are different. • The Tigris is rough and fast flowing. • The Euphrates is a lifeline. • It can more easily be used by ships. • The banks are lower, suitable for irrigation, with less violent floods.
Flooding: The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers originate in different mountain ranges. Usually, flooding occurs in the spring as snow melts in the mountains. This compelled early Mesopotamian cultures to undertake collective actions such as the building of dikes, digging of reservoirs, and construction of irrigation ditches. Salinization: The success of Mesopotamian city-states in building canals and irrigation systems added to the existing problem of salinization. As the land was irrigated, salt leached upward, making the soil useless. Salinization forced the different Mesopotamian city-states into a competition for arable land. Environmental Challenges
The People • Two cultural groups form the principle elements in the population of Mesopotamia • These are the Sumerians and the Akkadians. • They lived peacefully together and created mutual fertilization.
Sumerian History • Sumerians The people responsible for the first monumental temples and palaces, for the founding of the first city states and most likely for the invention of writing (all in the period of 3100-3000 BCE) are the Sumerians.
Sumer (4000 to 2300 B.C.E.) • The earliest Mesopotamian civilization emerged in the southern part in the Valley of Sumer around 3500 B.C.E. • The origin of the Sumerians is uncertain. • Their language is unlike any other in the region. • The Sumerians described their origin as lying in the East “where the sun rises.” • The principal Sumerian city-states were Ur, Lagesh, Eridu, and Erech. • The Epic of Gilgamesh, a long epic poem written around 2000 B.C.E., expressed the Sumerian conception of the relation of man and the gods.
SUMERIAN CITY • The people of the rich Tigris-Euphrates valley were able to grow sufficient food to meet their needs. • As a result, population increased; and from the nucleus of a few small farming villages, several important city-states arose. • The inhabitants of those cities irrigated the surrounding farm land by building canals; they defended themselves behind strong walled cities; they honored their gods by building large and impressive temples.
SUMERIAN CITY • Religion was a strong motivating force in the life of the Sumerians; the rulers of man’s first urban effort came from the priest class. • Later, the cities were governed by a bicameral legislature of free male citizens: a lower house of men able to bear arms, and an upper house of elders. • The king was an elected official during a time of crisis, but after 3000 B.C.E., the kingship became hereditary.
SUMERIAN CITY • By 2000 B.C.E., the cities of Sumer had grown so large that some, like Ur (then the capital of Sumer), had populations greater than 200,000 persons. • Although a few cities were beautiful with large landscaped parks, large public buildings, vast temple areas and private residences, most Sumerian cities were unattractive. • There appears to have been neither city-planning nor municipal services; garbage and sewage were thrown in the streets until they rose above the household.
SUMERIAN CITY • A defensive wall and moat encircled each city proper. • The city of Uruk had a wall over 6 miles long with some 900 towers. • The streets of the cities were narrow, unpaved, and winding; and houses large and small stood side by side. • Most houses were flat-roofed, one-story buildings of mud-brick construction. • They consisted of several rooms built around an open-air courtyard. • Upper-class Sumerians resided in two-story houses usually containing a dozen rooms which were constructed of mud-brick and white-washed inside and out. • Upper-class houses usually contained a kitchen, reception room, bed rooms, bathroom, servant’s quarters, and often a private chapel. • A family burial crypt was often located below the house.
SUMERIAN CITY • The business area of the town was a vast bazaar — very much like one in a present-day mid-eastern city. In a maze of awning-covered booths, Sumerian merchants supplied the townspeople with material needs.
Sumerian Economy • Few people in ancient Sumer or Babylon belonged to the nobility, priest hood or military classes; the majority of the people were farmers, herdsmen, fishermen, merchants, scribes, potters, masons, or jewelers. • The oldest and the largest of these occupations was farming; in fact, the oldest surviving piece of literature is a farmer’s almanac over 5000 years old. • Not until man found a steady supply of food was he able to support large families, build solid houses, and make the necessary social adjustment of shifting loyalty from his family to the group. • The farmer worked long and hard to combat the forces of nature. • He knew how to plow and sow his field, irrigate, thrash the grain and winnow (separate the wheat from the chaff). • The farmer raised various cereals such as emmer, wheat, and millet. • Barley was the most popular grain since it grew well in the saline soil and was versatile, serving as a porridge, ground flour, and the basis of an ancient beer.
Jobs included pottery makers, stonecutters, bricklayers, metal smiths, farmers, fishers, shepherds, weavers, leather-workers, and sailors. The wheel was invented for carts, chariots, and pottery making. Iron was smelted about 2500 BC. Seals had been used to stamp a carved insignia on clay before cylindrical seals became widespread for labeling commodities and legal documents. Pictographic writing was first used by the Sumerians about 3400, and by 3000 BC this had evolved into cuneiform words and syllables. The Sumerian economy was based on agriculture, which was influenced by major technological advances in Mesopotamian history. Early Sumerian homes were huts built from bundles of reeds, which went on to be built from sun-baked mud bricks because of the shortage of stone. Sumerian Economy and Trade
Sumerian Economy • The Sumerian economy appears to have been free from arbitrary control; even kings were expected to respect property rights. • The land was under the control of three groups of people: the nobility, the temple estates, and the commoners. Land ownership was held as a patriarchal family or clan possession. • Gradually lower class holdings were absorbed by the nobility, and the domination of temple land came under their control as well. • In the end, the power of the kings dominated over that of the nobility.
Sumerian Economy • With the lack of natural resources, traders set out to gain the necessary stone, wood and metal. • As early as 3000 B.C.E., commerce was flourishing. Rivers furnished traders access to the Persian Gulf and a water route to the Indus River civilization of India. • Other traders went to the North and swept into the Mediterranean. • These far-reaching commercial ties and favorable geographical position were responsible for Sumer’s rapid expansion and cultural growth
Sumerian Economy • The traders established some of the first known business methods. • They financed many of their expeditions through moneylenders at interest rates between 20 and 30 per cent. • They used letters of credit between cities and established a medium of exchange with gold and silver discs. • Barter, however, remained the most common method of exchange. • There is little doubt that the place of the farmer and tradesmen was a strong factor in Mesopotamian prosperity.
War and Peace • One of the most important functions of the Sumerian king was waging war. • As city-states expanded, conflicts arose over land owner ship and irrigation rights. • After 3000 B.C.E., Sumer was engaged in continuous warfare as kings raised large armies of professional soldiers for defense and conquest. • Generally the soldiers were well disciplined, armed and trained. • The Sumerian soldier was the rival of any Roman legion. • He was taught to operate in a unit, the phalanx, a formation of men in square ranks as deep as they were wide.
War and Peace • With warfare a way of life, it was only a matter of time before it exhausted the land and its people. By the 18th century B.C.E., Sumer was conquered by the Semitic Amorites (who became the Babylonians). • The Sumerian city-states were never permanently united; the city-states were bound only by culture, language and trade.
City State Empire • The Sumerians developed their elaborate city-state empires, engaged in far-flung trade enterprises, and attained a level of prosperity seldom equaled in antiquity. • Another side of their civilization, however, was gained by the discovery of the royal graveyards of the city of Ur. • Sometime around 2000 B.C.E., the city suffered total destruction at the hands of the neighboring Elamites. • The death pits thus serve historians as one record of Sumerian daily life. • Between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago, when a king died he was buried with his most valuable possessions and what appears to have been a voluntary human sacrifice composed of his guards, musicians, servants, harem, and various court officials. (Even his chariot and donkey accompanied their master to the other world.) • Since the early kings were deified in their lifetimes, the sacrifice of a human life for a god was easier, perhaps, with assurance of another life. • This custom appears to have ended before 2000 B.C.E. little mention seems to have been made of it in the literary documents, a majority of which were composed in this era.
From various poems and laments, we have gained considerable information (although sometimes contradictory) on the Sumerian interpretation of the afterlife. In general, the afterlife, or nether world was conceived as existing below the world, while the residence of the gods was believed to be above the earth. The souls of the dead descended to the nether world from the grave or from special openings for heroes located in important religious cities. Also mentioned in some literature is a river ferry, said to have carried the soul across some mysterious underworld river. Once in the nether world, the soul came under the rule of two gods, Nergal and Ereshkigal, aided by numerous lesser deities. One group of helpers called gallas seem to have been like under world constables. Gilgamesh, an early king and hero of Sumer, likewise saw to it that the residents of the net4ier world kept the established rules. Sumerian Afterlife
Sumerian Afterlife • The dead soul was expected to observe the rules very carefully. For the descent into the nether world, he could not anoint himself with oil, wear sandals, carry a weapon, make noise, or wear clean clothes. • The violation of any one of these rules resulted in the soul’s capture by the “sewards” of the underworld of whom little is known. • Once a soul had been seized, it was impossible for a mortal or even a god to return to earth without aid from a god of the nether world, and another soul to take his place.
ZIGGURAT • By the end of the fourth millennium B.C.E., the Sumerians had begun the construction of temples and shrines as a community or clan project. • With the passage of years, new temples came to be constructed on the sites of older temples, so that gradually the temples rose higher and higher from the plains. • By the second millennium B.C.E., most of the important Sumerian cities such as Eridu, Larsa, Nippur, Ur, and Uruk, possessed an elevated temple known as a ziggurat. • At present, some 30 ziggurats have been discovered each possessing from 3 to 7 terraces, and having a height of as much as 290 feet.
ZIGGURAT • The construction of these temples must be paralleled with the effort to build the pyramids. • An example is the ziggurat at Ur which contained some 3,000,000 bricks, none of which was over 15 inches long. • The structure was similar in appearance to the pyramids of Egypt, especially the earliest step pyramid. • There has been recent speculation over which of the two civilizations, if either, influenced the other. • Ziggurats, however, vary in architecture, being rectangular, oval, circular and square.
The purposes of the ziggurat and pyramid are entirely different: the pyramid served as a burial tomb for the god-king of the country, while the ziggurat is believed to have served as a pedestal for the gods to descend to earth. On the top terrace, a temple stood as a reception place for the divine visitor. On a lower level, a second temple stood for the god to rest before his ascent. Many stories were told by later civilizations to account for these buildings; the Hebrews may have felt this as the cause of the great dispersal known as the “Tower of Babel” in Genesis. As religion grew in complexity, the temples became staffed with a select priesthood. The public was not invited to participate in the temple rites; nevertheless, the people believed without constant prayers and the necessary ritual, the gods would not bless their land. Soon a temple community grew around these religious centers, with storehouses, land holdings, courtrooms, and housing for the priests. The temple thus became a political and economic part of community life. ZIGGURAT
Sumerian Literature • Sumerian literature consisted mainly of an elaborate mythology which reflected the spiritual and intellectual life of the people. • The significance of these literary compositions cannot be overestimated, as the Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians absorbed these works almost in total. • Hundreds of years later, other Near East civilizations such as the Hittites, Hurrians, and Canaanites likewise assimilated Sumerian literature. • Many scholars believe that the Hebrews and Greeks have this tradition in their literary works.
Sumerian literature consists mainly of epics, myths, hymns, lamentations, proverbs, and historic documents. At present, our earliest literary documents date about 2400 B.C. Most of the literary works are written in poetic form without the use of rhyme or meter. They suffer from the excessive repetitious chorus and refrains. By the third millennium B.C., the Sumerian school came to represent the seat of all learning. In the course of the next thousand years, the schools studied and copied earlier literary works; most of our texts today have been these copies. Scribes and graduates of these schools may also have been responsible for the religious hymns in the temples, and the songs and epics of the court entertainers. Sumerian Literature
Sumerian Literature • At present we have little information on how these works were presented. • Since only scribes could read, and private libraries were rare, the literary collections of the schools must have been read in public places such as the temple courtyard or marketplace.
Sumerian Literature • One of the most popular epics deals with the half- mortal king of Erech, Gilgamesh. • Gilgamesh is portrayed in the transparency doing battle with a lion, a symbol of his power. • According to the epic, he is a handsome and strong king who becomes the oppressor of his city. • When the people petition the gods for aid, the gods create Enkidu; a powerful man who lives like the animals. • The gods teach Enkidu the worldly ways and send him into battle with Gilgamesh. • After a lengthy fight Gilgamesh prevails, but his enemy soon becomes his best friend. • Thereafter they set out on a series of adventures. • When Gilgamesh repulses the romantic attentions of the goddess Ishtar, her father dispatches the “Bull of Heaven” to kill Gilgamesh. • During the battle Enkidu killed the bull and is fated by the gods to die. Gilgamesh loudly laments for his friend’s death and expresses fear for his own situation. • He journeys to distant lands seeking a precious plant promised to give him immortality. • After an arduous journey Gilgamesh finds the plant, only to lose it to a snake in an unguarded moment. • The epic ends on this dismal note.
Sumerian Literature • Another interesting epic may be the prototype of Noah in the Old Testament. • In this epic, Enlil, a powerful god, becomes displeased with civilization and vows to destroy all living creatures in a flood. • Ea, a fellow god, forwards a favorite mortal Utnapishtim, in a dream to build a boat and fill it with his family and all living creatures. • The boat survives the storm’s fury of six days and six nights. • The survivors offer thanks to the gods who in turn reproach Enlil for his decision.
Sumerian Education • From the viewpoint of history one of the greatest achievements of the Sumerians was their system of writing and formal education. • Writing enabled man to maintain a more complex economic and political society. • Sumerian script, dating from a period as early as 3100 B.C.E., has come down to us. • These first written documents were pictographic with each impression representing an idea. • They, like all later Sumerian scripts, were composed on small mud tablets with a sharpened reed called a stylus. • The stylus possessed a sharp point on one end for pictographic work, and later added a wedge-shaped impression on the other end for writing with speed and legibility. • To avoid smearing his work, the scribe wrote from left to right, and from top to bottom. • The Sumerian system of writing (cuneiform) and even the language was adopted by their conquerors and used in the Near East for some 2000 years. • The Babylonians held such awe for the written word that they believed their fate was determined by a divine scribe and a book of judgment.
Sumerian Education • By 2500 B.C.E., the Sumerians introduced formal schooling. Much of our knowledge of their society is based on the tens of thousands of tablets we have discovered in what is thought to have been scribal schools. • The Sumerian school, referred to as the “tablet house,” had as its goal the education of scribes for various religious, governmental, and commercial services. • At first the schools appear to have been religious in orientation, but soon thereafter, they shifted to training for secular occupations. • The teachers were supported by tuition fees collected from students. School was neither compulsory nor universal, and classes were for males only. • The head of the school was called the “school-father” or “expert”; he determined the curriculum of the school. • An assistant teacher was called the “big brother”; his task was to examine homework, listen to student recitation, and prepare new tablets for writing. • Other faculty members were in charge of either penmanship, grammar, attendance, or discipline (“Man with the whip”).
Sumerian Education • Being a student was not easy, since classes lasted from morning until sunset. • To be a scribe required many years of concentrated study. • A student had to master such varied curricula as grammar, penmanship, some natural science, various math problems, myths, poems, hymns, theology, proverbs, and legal documents.
Sumerian Education • Discipline appears to have been a major problem in the Sumerian school, but one that could be solved with the use of the whip or cane. • In one text a schoolboy revealed his problems: he was late to school, made a mistake in grammar, wore dirty clothes, spoke without permission, rose from his chair without permission, took without permission, made poor script and used poor spoken grammar. • In each case he was caned. In desperation the student persuaded his father to invite the teacher to dinner. • The teacher was given a new garment, a ring, and a raise in salary, after which, he praised the student as a boy of great learning.
The Sumerians found some relief from the harshness of everyday life in fun and games. Some of these pastimes: a harpist, an itinerant show-man with his monkeys, and men engaged in a bare fisted boxing match. Any of these scenes might have been common to Sumerian city life amusements. The most interesting pastime that has come down to us is a Sumerian game of which we have neither the name nor the rules. The game boards have been discovered in small numbers in the royal graveyards of Ur. The games appear to have been the diversion of the rich upper classes, since the boards have always been found in royal graves. These games might have also been intended as a pastime activity for the nether world. The Sumerian games found in Ur are very similar. Each game has seven men of shells and six pyramid-shaped dice with two plain corners and two marked corners. While no direct evidence exists of how the game was played, or of the use of the dice, one suggestion has been furnished by the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum. It is believed that each player rolled the dice and moved his pieces the designated number of spaces, first along an inside track (1-2) and then down a common center track (3-10), where pieces could be removed if an opponent landed on an occupied square. The removed pieces were returned to the starting position. Finally, the pieces proceeded “home” by the last private square (11-14). The intricate patterns on each square, however, still leave much unexplained. Because the Sumerians were such sophisticated people in regard to the use of numbers, other explanations might be necessary to interpret the artistic designs. Sumerian Past-Times
Sumerian Renaissance • About 2500 B.C.E., Sumer was in a stage of temporary unification under Lugalzaggisi, a king of Uruk. • By fire and sword, he held sway over the Mesopotamian basin from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. • His despotic rule brought about wholesale opposition among his subjects. • An Akkadian soldier, Sargon, led a revolution which resulted in his replacing King Lugalzaggisi with himself.
Little is known about the early life of Sargon; however, according to legend, he was raised by a farmer after having been found in a basket in the bull rushes of the Euphrates River. He later became a cupbearer to his king and rose to a military command. With his conquest he assumed to title of ruler of the “Four Quarters of the World.” He founded a dynasty which ruled a united Mesopotamia for some two centuries. This Akkadian domination seems most responsible for the artistic flowering in sculpture that left its mark on the Mesopotamian civilization for centuries to come. Like all the people of other civilizations which settled in the basin, the Akkadians became lax with their newly found pleasures. From the East, an invasion of nomads (Guti) put an end to the Akkadian Empire and allowed the Sumerians to re-establish their independence. The Sumerians initiated a golden age of art in civilization, literally a rebirth or renaissance of their previous greatness. Known as the “Third Dynasty of Ur,” it be came an age noted for its powerful architecture, as seen in palaces, temples, and ziggurats. Likewise, it was an era of statuary, bas-reliefs, cylinder seals, and clay statues of excellent workmanship. Sumerian Renaissance
Sumerian Renaissance • The statue of the man known as Gudea is an example of the neo-Sumerian period. Gudea was also most responsible for the city of Lagash’s becoming a great cultural center during the period of the Guti invasion. • The libation goblet, bearing Gudea’s name, has its greatest interest in the symbolic decorations. Two snakes are twined around a pole, while two winged creatures hold a staff as a protector. (It is believed that the snake, a symbol of fertility, would bring prosperity to Gudea’s fields.) The dragon-like creature, with the bodies of several deadly animals, is most likely a god by reason of his crown. • The foundation figurine, an interesting art form of bronze metalwork, was the forerunner of the modem foundation stone. The purpose of the figurine was to hold the evil spirits below the house and thus prevent injury to its inhabitants. This practice was certainly more humane than the demanded human blood sacrifice related in the Old Testament.
Akkad (2300 to 2200 B.C.E.) • The Akkadians were a Semitic people who occupied the Sumerian city-states after 2400 B.C.E. In 2340 B.C.E. the Akkadian king Sargon proclaimed himself a “world conqueror.” • The Akkadian language replaced Sumerian. The Akkadians adopted the Sumerian culture. • Between 2200 and 2000 B.C.E. there was a Sumerian revival in which the Akkadians and Sumerians became indistinguishable.
Amor (Old Babylonians 2000 to 1550 B.C.E.) • The Amorites overwhelmed their rivals by 1900 B.C.E. • They established a new capital city at Babylon. The capital’s Hanging Gardens were recognized in antiquity as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. • The Amorites are known as the Old Babylonians. • They preserved much of the Sumerian tradition. The sixth Amorite King Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.E.), promulgated a legal code which unified the entire lower Tigris-Euphrates Valley.
HAMMURABI AND HIS CODE • About 1850 B.C.E., an Amorite dynasty replaced the declining Sumerian influence of Mesopotamia. These conquerors established their capital in a small Sumerian town called Babylon. In the course of a hundred years, the land of Sumer was renamed Babylon.
In 1750 B.C.E., King Hammurabi came to the throne of Babylon amidst the fragmented rivalry of various city states. Hammurabi confronted his enemies with policies of guise, courage, and patience. After twenty-five years of military and political preparation, Hammurabi embarked on a military campaign which gave him the rule of a united kingdom from northern Iraq to the Persian Gulf. By the end of his prosperous reign of 43 years, the Babylonian culture was firmly entrenched on the Sumerian foundation. The fame of Hammurabi certainly did not depend on his military exploits, for his successors quickly lost his territorial gains to other civilizations. Like all the other Mesopotamian rulers of whom we have records, however, Hammurabi prided himself on his ability to maintain law and justice. Hammurabi’s Code is not that of the first lawmaker, for at least three earlier Sumerian law codes have come down to us, with the earliest dating some four centuries before Hammurabi. In fact, many of the laws included in Hammurabi’s Code were exact copies of earlier works. The importance of Hammurabi’s Code, however, is that it was the best-preserved legal document of the time which reflected the social structure of the time. HAMMURABI AND HIS CODE
HAMMURABI AND HIS CODE • On the “Diorite Shaft” Hammurabi is seen receiving the law code from Shamash, the sun-god. The gods gave the ruler the right to despense justice, and placed a curse on persons who violated the laws.
HAMMURABI AND HIS CODE • The 285 laws were arranged under the headings of trade and business, family, labor, injuries, real estate, and personal property. • The Code’s contents are a blending of enlightened laws and barbaric punishments. • Justice was very demanding, with “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” being a well-known extract. • Examples of Hammurabi’s “justice” can be seen in the punishment of amputating the hand of a son who struck his father. • While an eye was put out for a person who had borne false witness, death was the penalty for shirking state service, creating insurrection, or stealing. • Most crimes demanded monetary compensation for the injured party. • Accidents were not normally judged as offenses; the owner of an ox could not be blamed if the beast gored a passer-by, unless it was known as a vicious animal.
The Sumerian Paradigm • The Sumerians established the pattern for civilization in Mesopotamia. • They were the first to respond to the twin problems of flooding and salinization. • They constructed dikes and built reservoirs and formed a loose confederation between their city-states. • Typically, city-states covered an area of approximately 100 square miles. • The city-states were independent and joined together under a common leader (patesi) when confronted with an external threat. • The Sumerian confederation of city- states was unable to withstand the influx of Semitic peoples. Sargon (ca. 2350) made himself king of a “universal dominion.”
Sumerian Religion • The Gilgamesh(epic poem composed Ca. 2000 B.C.E.) presets the religious outlook of the Sumerian and subsequent Mesopotamian peoples. • The gods were divided into warring factions that struggled for control of the Earth. • The poem centers on the protagonist’s (a quasi-legendary King who lived Ca.2800 B.C.E.) unsuccessful effort to escape death. • Archaeologists have discovered numerous clay tablets that describe the rituals, prayers, magical incantations, and procedures used to learn the will of the gods (divination) that the Babylonians employed. • The focal point of religious practices was in the temple that stood on top of the city’s ziggurat (stepped mound).
The Invention of Writing • There is some evidence that writing may have been invented as early as 9000 B.C.E. • Most historians credit the Sumerians with beginning the tradition of writing that runs to the present. • The earliest Sumerian writing (3500 B.C.E.) consisted of inscriptions on clay tablets and cylinders. • This writing is called cuneiformbecause of its wedge-like character (the Latin word “cuneus” means “wedge”). • A reed stylus was used to make impressions on clay tablets about the size of an adult’s hand.
Stages in the Development of Writing • 1) Pictographs: The earliest form of writing, the thing being depicted is represented by a picture. (ill. 53) • 2) Ideograms:A sign or symbol is used to represent a class of things. • 3) Phonogram:A sign or symbol represents a specific sound. The Phoenicians (people who lived in what is now Lebanon) are credited with spreading the use of the modem alphabet (after 1900 B.C.E.), the origin of which is unknown. The Greeks adopted the alphabet from Phoenician traders in the eighth century. The Greeks in turn passed this alphabet to the Romans, who made minor changes in it.
