CS100 Chapter Notes - Chapter assigned: Hieratic, Hyksos, Quipu
Media in Ancient Empires - Innis
From Stone to Papyrus
● Stone - papyrus (made from plant, covered by cloth and hammered)
● Brushes made from rush were used for writing
● Could write faster (stone hieroglyphs were carefully formed)
● Pictures → script
● Writing had been restricted to governmental, fiscal, magical, and religious purposes →
papyrus and hieratic characters = administration more efficient
● After 2000 BC literacy = prosperity and social rank (scribes)
Effects of Writing and Equality
● Spread of writing after democratic revolution was accompanied by emergence of new
religions in the immortality cult of Horus and Osiris
● Thoth: inventor of writing and alphabets, Osiris served by Thoth
● To know the name of a being was to master him, pronounce the name was to fashion
the spiritual image by the voice, and to write it was to draw a material image
Effects of Change
● Stone → papyrus and changes in political and religious institutions = strain on Egyptian
civilization
● Egypt under capture from 1660 to 1580 BC, conquerors adopted hieroglyphic writing and
egyptian customs, egypt expelled invaders
● Use of papyrus increased after expulsion of Hyksos (captors)
● Suggested that writing was invented in Sumer to keep tallies and make lists
● Earliest clay tablets include legal contracts, deeds of sale and land transfers
● Increased revenues = accounting and writing
● Alluvial clay found in babylonia and assyria was used for making brick and as a writing
medium
● Fine clay was kneaded into biscuits or tablets, moist clay needed so important to write
with speed and accuracy
● Pictographs of fine lines were probably followed by linear writing
● Triangular stylus introduced
● Economy of effect demanded a reduction in the number of strokes… remnants of
pictorial writing disappeared
● Change in writing angle meant change in direction of strokes or wedges… pictographs →
signs
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Stone - papyrus (made from plant, covered by cloth and hammered) Brushes made from rush were used for writing. Could write faster (stone hieroglyphs were carefully formed) Writing had been restricted to governmental, fiscal, magical, and religious purposes papyrus and hieratic characters = administration more efficient. After 2000 bc literacy = prosperity and social rank (scribes) Spread of writing after democratic revolution was accompanied by emergence of new religions in the immortality cult of horus and osiris. Thoth: inventor of writing and alphabets, osiris served by thoth. To know the name of a being was to master him, pronounce the name was to fashion the spiritual image by the voice, and to write it was to draw a material image. Stone papyrus and changes in political and religious institutions = strain on egyptian civilization. Egypt under capture from 1660 to 1580 bc, conquerors adopted hieroglyphic writing and egyptian customs, egypt expelled invaders.
