Transcript chap 2.3 powerpoint

DO NOW…PLEASE
QUIETLY
1. Take out SOCIAL STUDIES notebook
2. Clear off everything else.
3. Put names & date of each paper on your
desk
3. In the DO NOW section of your notebook
answer this:
Why do cultures/societies need a
form of written language?
CUNEIFORM
was developed in Mesopotamia around 3100 B.C.
RECORD KEEPING
(notice I didn’t say writing)!!!!
EARLIEST WRITING
• The earliest form of Sumerian writing was
made of PICTOGRAMS / PICTOGRAPHS
BARLEY
• Pictographs were simple pictures / symbols
that represented a single object and were
used to record records of farm animals and
crops
INVENTION OF WRITING
 By around 3100 B.C., record keeping developed
into writing.
Eventually, scribes combined symbols to make
groups of wedges & lines known as cuneiform.
Cuneiform script could represent different
languages.
Very useful in land of many peoples!
CUNEIFORM
A combination of symbols, lines and wedges
• Developed to convey IDEAS as well as facts
• Symbols changed over time.
• Didn’t borrow ideas from other civilizations
•Symbols
set in
rows
•Each row
read left
to right
•Page
read top
to bottom
SCRIBES
• A scribe was an educated person who was
schooled for 12 years!
• Could read & write
• Highly respected & valuable
• Some were given special
government assignments
Kept records of:
Taxes, sales, trades, marriages, deaths, gifts to gods
Ancient “Paper”
Clay provided by Tigris & Euphrates
Spring rivers washed clay down
from mountains
Scribes shaped soft, wet clay into
smooth flat tablets.
• Size of tablet depended on its
purpose
• Letters marked in clay with sharp
tools
• Clay dried and became permanent
record
I DON’T HAVE A PENCIL !
Neither did the scribes…..
A stylus made from reeds
left by the rivers, was
Sliced at an angle at the
bottom.
Then later made changed
in order to put holes
and indents (wedges)
Activity Guidelines:
1. Listen to all directions
2. Stylus is NOT to be pointed at anyone
3. Your message MUST be SCHOOL
APPROPRIATE!
4. Please keep clay in 1 piece…
5. Clay MAY NOT LEAVE the classroom in any form.
HOMEWORK
Read each question carefully, and answer in complete sentences
What was the first form of record keeping used by
the Sumerians?
Why were changes in made in the original
writing method that was used by the Sumerians?
What did the size of the clay tablet have to do
with what was being written?