ARKY 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Semitic People, Shang Dynasty
Document Summary
Scholars are torn whether writing first occurred in egypt or mesopotamia. Chinese archeologists also claim that china has the first writing system; however, their writing emerges 1000 - 2000 years after the earlier ones. The material culture they had before counted as proto-writing; it was an attract thinking tat would eventually lead to writing. There were pieces of clays with tokens used and a clay envelope of a ball called a bullae. This reflects some sort of ancient recording of quantities. The number would be indicated on the outside, and the ball tokens on the inside in case of mismarking or altering the outside. But it is proto-writing, so it is more difficult. The first example of proper writing within mesopotamia was written most likely in sumerian. We are not entirely sure of what the early versions were. Languages would be written used cuneiform symbols and signs.
