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Week07Writing.pptx1
Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
The Non Western History of
Writing and the Alphabet
Week 07
Lecture 01
This lecture was last updated 12 March, 2016
Previously updated 22 March, 2013
3/12/2016
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
The Origins of Writing and the Alphabet
The learning objectives for week 07 lecture 01 are:
to appreciate the nonwestern origin of writing and the alphabet;
to understand the superiority of the alphabet as a means of writing;
to understand the continuing use of some pre-alphabetic writing systems such as hieroglyphs
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
The Origins of Writing and the Alphabet
Week 07 lecture 01 terms you should know:
Hieroglyph
Cartouche
Rosetta Stone
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World: Dr. Richard W. Franke
The Origins of Writing and the Alphabet
Week 07 Lecture 01 Sources:
Budge, E. A. Wallis. 1983 [orig. 1910]. Egyptian Language: Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphics. New York: Dover Publications.
Morrow, Susan Brind. 2015. The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
Parkinson, Richard, and Stephen Quirke. 1995. Papyrus. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Robinson, Andrew. 1995. The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs and Pictograms. London: Thames and Hudson.
Zauzich, Karl-Theodor. 1992. Hieroglyphs without Mystery: An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Writing. Translated and Adapted for English-Speaking Readers by Ann Macy Roth. Austin: University of Texas Press.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
Writing one of the most significant inventions of all time
Allows storage of knowledge
Allows accumulation of knowledge
Allows much greater and faster communication and sharing of ideas
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
2. Many pictorial writing systems in use worldwide
eg Native American drawing to be shown on slide 15
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
3. True writing developed at least three times
Ancient Middle East – Sumer and Egypt – around 4,000 BC
Ancient China – about the same time
Maya of Central America – around 2,000 BC
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
4. True writing is writing that can convey everything humans are capable of thinking
Picture writing is limited in its ability to achieve this
True writing developed into the alphabet
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
5. Alphabet the most efficient system of writing
Letters represent only the sounds
Meaning comes only from the sounds
A few letters can be endlessly recycled (called “duality of patterning” in linguistics)
Much easier to learn
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
6. True alphabet maybe invented only once
Derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs
Developed over the millenium 3000 BC to 2000 BC in Egypt
“North Semitic” people took to ancient Canaan
Phoenicians took to Greeks
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
Greeks added vowel sounds
Our word “alphabet” is the first two letters of the Greek alphabet
Alpha and beta come from Semitic “aleph” and “beth,” still seen in Hebrew alphabet
Aleph originally picture of ox head
Can trace back to 4000 BC to Sumerian “gub”
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
Can you go from the Semitic on to the Greek and then Roman letters?
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
. Steps in writing and the alphabet
First came picture writing
See the Native American picture writing example on the next page
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
8. Next came “logogramic” writing
Mixture of pictures and sound elements
Chinese character writing is an example
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
8. The modern Western – or Roman – alphabet derives ultimately from a process similar to that of Chinese, except that the Egyptians gradually transformed their hieroglyphics (“sacred pictures”) into more abstract – sound related or “phonetic” – symbols →
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
9. The gift of alphabetic writing comes to us from three main sources:
Ancient Sumer (Babylonia) around 4,000 BC
Ancient Egypt 3000 BC to 2000 BC
The ancient semitic peoples (later some came to call themselves Jews, possibly from “people of Judah”)
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
10. Of these, the most important were the Egyptians
Developed the earliest writing of the Sumerians
Transformed hieroglyphs into near alphabetic or true alphabetic writing
Passed on their system to the nearby North Semitic cultures
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
11. The earliest hierglyphs (3000 BC) were pictures
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
12. Hieroglyphs are still in use
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
2013 Update
Writing and the Alphabet
12a. Hieroglyphs are still in use – do they make use of the phone faster?
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
13. Egyptian writing disappeared around 500 AD.
14. By 1700 no one had any idea what the strange picture-like drawings meant
15. Then, in 1799 a French military officer in Egypt made an astonishing discovery
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
16. He picked up a stone in the village of el Rashid – now known in English as “Rosetta.”
17. He saw strange writing on the stone and passed it on to his superiors who immediately realized it was a document of great historical importance.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
18. The Rosetta Stone provided the key to unlocking the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
19. The Rosetta Stone had been carved in 196 BC
20. It contained an inscription by priests honoring the then Egyptian pharaoh
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
21. The inscription was written in three languages
Ancient hieroglyphs
Demotic, a writing system for Egyptian commoners
Greek, which was the language of the Egyptian rulers in 196 BC
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
The Rosetta Stone
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
22. The Rosetta Stone was deciphered in 1822 by the French scholar Jean-François Champillion.
23. Champillion knew Greek and also Coptic – the language of Ethiopian Christianity that is derived from ancient Egyptian
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
24. Through his knowledge of those two ancient languages and with much hard work he was able to decipher the first seven signs from demotic to Coptic
25…and from there he gradually worked out the meaning of the other symbols
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
26.
Egyptian Writing Principle No. 1
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
27. Egyptian writing principle no. 2
Only consonents have writen symbols
Vowels are figured out –
3rd flr apt in hse, 4 lg rms, exclnt loc nr cntr, nr rr, prkg, w-b-frpl, hdwd flrs, skylts, ldry, $600 lincl ht.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
28. Consonants-only writing is still common in modern Arabic and Hebrew
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
29. Principle #3 is the “determinative,” marking a sound to make it into a picture meaning:
The “mouth” symbol denotes the sound “r”
The determinative stroke causes it to
mean “mouth” or “speech”
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
30. Advanced writing techniques
nb = all, any, every
nfr = beautiful
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
31. More advanced techniques
sba = star
pr = go forth
running legs indicate verb of motion
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
32. The Egyptian scribes’ attachment to aesthetics led them from the balanced rectangle to the rounded off rectangle we know as a “cartouche”
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
33. Cartouches were especially popular as emblems for the pharaohs –
This one is perhaps the most famous of them all…
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
34. The boy-king –
Tutankhamun, Ruler of Thebes
(Ruled 1333 to 1324
BC)
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
35. Red arrows show order of spelling of Tutankhamun – do you recognize the “ankh” part of his name?
Blue lines show “ruler of Thebes of Upper Egypt”
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
36. Here is the cartouche of another famous pharaoh – Ramses II who reigned for 66 years (1279 to 1213 BC)
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Egyptian Writing
37. Some people believe Ramses is the pharaoh described in the Bible in Exodus – but there is no verification from the Egyptian materials
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
38. We can only say for sure that by the time of Ramses II Egyptian writing had long been alphabetic and had influenced the spread of the alphabet to ancient Canaan and was probably on its way to the Greek islands.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2012 Update
39. Along with priestly hieroglyphics, Egyptian commoners had also developed a writing system, called “demotic,” which is one of the three languages on the Rosetta Stone.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2012 Update
40. In 2012 scholars at the University of Chicago have published an online dictionary of 2,000 words in Egyptian Demotic – words of family, love, words used in private letters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/science/new-demotic-dictionary-translates-lives-of-ancient-egyptians.html?_r=1&ref=science&gwh=30A6E687832BD8B9EB7873BF1D5CB169
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2012 Update
41. You can read the September 18, 2012 New York Times Science Section article about this dictionary here.
You can directly access the dictionary at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute here.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
42. Egyptian writing is known to be connected with religion, mysticism, poetry and multiple layers of imagery…
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
43. Archaeologist and Egyptologist Susan Brind Morrow has recently RE-translated some of the oldest and most mysterious of all the hieroglyphs…
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
44. Known as the “pyramid texts,” these writings are found all over the inside walls of 5th Dynasty pharaohs’ tombs at a site called Saqqara near modern Cairo.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
45. By contrast, the more famous and older 4th Dynasty pyramids of 2,613 BCE (Before the Common Era = BC in the older notation) to 2,495 BCE – see the next lecture – while mathematically amazing – contain no writing at all.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
46. The 5th Dynasty runs from about 2,494 BCE to 2,345 – the approximate date of the burial of the Pharaoh Unis (or Unas).
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
47. On the inside West wall of Unis’s pyramid, one sees…
[written in about 2,345 BCE = about one thousand years before Moses wrote down the book of Genesis]
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
48. … “the earliest surviving body of written poetry and religious philosophy in the world.”
Source: Morrow, Susan Brind. 2015. The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Pages 20 – 21.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
49. Partial translation of this text from about 2,345 BCE:
Over the fire Beneath the holy ones as they grow dark As the falcon flies, as the falcon flies May Unis rise into this fire Beneath the holy ones as they grow dark They make a path for Unis Unis takes the path
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
50. Growing dark may refer to the dawn when the stars (which the Egyptians thought were gods in the sky) grow dark and the falcon grabs the deceased’s soul to carry him towards the sky….
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
50. …and much more is hidden in several multiple meanings that only emerge when one has studied the hieroglyphs themselves…
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet:
2016 Update
51. If you are interested in the multiple images and complex meanings of this and other pyramid texts, see her fascinating book.
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Montclair State University Department of Anthropology Anth 140: Non Western Contributions to the Western World Dr. Richard W. Franke
Writing and the Alphabet
End of
Week 07 Lecture 01
Writing and the Alphabet
3/12/2016
