AHSS*2190 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Mesopotamia, Elite, Hieratic
Week 2: The Media of Early Civilization
Early Civilizations
Neolithic Period
-Used decorations and performed rituals with ochre
-Animal and human forms translated into clay
-Move towards farming and more stability
-New technologies emerge such as polished stone and use of clay
-Allows for new symbols such as clay tokens
-A complete break from what had been used in previous societies
Use of Tokens
-Represents the link between tallies and writing
-Tokens remove data from its context and separate
-knowledge from the knower
-Promotes abstraction and objectivity
-Forms a system
Moving Towards Writing
-There is an instinct for language
-Some scholars believe that writing is based on the image
-Writing is about information storage
-How does writing influence a society?
-Ancient Mesopotamia
• Clay tablets made from cuneiform
• Signs are pressed into wet clay by using a stylus
• Approximately 700 different signs used
• Numbers were used
• Formal training needed to be a scribe
• Controlled by power elite
-Ancient Egypt
• Carved hieroglyphs used
• Foundations of history being recorded
• Hieroglyphics, Hieratic, and Demotic
• The Rosetta Stone
• Continuity of Egyptian civilization
• Power elites controlled writing
-Papyrus
• A reed found in the Nile river
• Could be assembled into writing surface
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Document Summary
Used decorations and performed rituals with ochre. Animal and human forms translated into clay. New technologies emerge such as polished stone and use of clay. Allows for new symbols such as clay tokens. A complete break from what had been used in previous societies. Represents the link between tallies and writing. Tokens remove data from its context and separate. Forms a system knowledge from the knower. Some scholars believe that writing is based on the image. Ancient mesopotamia: clay tablets made from cuneiform, signs are pressed into wet clay by using a stylus, approximately 700 different signs used, numbers were used, formal training needed to be a scribe, controlled by power elite. Ancient egypt: carved hieroglyphs used, foundations of history being recorded, hieroglyphics, hieratic, and demotic, the rosetta stone, continuity of egyptian civilization, power elites controlled writing. Papyrus: a reed found in the nile river, could be assembled into writing surface, surprisingly durable but had limitations.
