Drucker&McVarish Chapter 1

Early Writing: Mark making, Notation Systems and Scripts

Shift from oral to literate culture noted
oral communication = ephemeral
writing endures
Rongo Rongo script (Easter Island) has never been deciphered!
Marks are deeply significant - symbolize separateness of humans & their words & each other& different from intervals that separate them
Hallelujah Man on painted stones Mas D'Azil France 10000 BCE
3000BCE Mesopotamian Clay tokens = cash register receipts
1800BCE Indus Valley Script
Same info as Ong, but so helpful to have photos!!
quantity is a huge conceptual leap from counting
phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny
a sign that symbolizes "fourness" = 4
1300BCE Oracle Bones created in China - precursor to modern chinese characters heat cracked bone, pigment rubbed in to cracks
Early Chinese symbols look just like those stones from France. Why not a written language?
Writing = graphic forms that specifically express language
Characters for each object don't count
Some characteristics of writing and speaking are not interchangeable
ex: A decorative initial or a seductive tone
I am adding performance artist to my resume because I do quote fingers
3200BCE First writing = Mesopotamian Script
2000BCE First maps invented in Sumer
Cuneiform has never been deciphered? What about Zecharia Sitchin????
1250 CE Dresden Codex - Yucatan created
Cuneiform was adopted several times and made to adapt to several spoken languages
Scripts are adapted via varying writing technologies
Excellent language tree on pg. 17
60000BCE Language thought to have first emerged via biological evolutionary developments of skull
3000BCE - Narmer Palette created - Fully formed hieroglyphic language
Hieroglyphic spacing important - close together = one meaning, spread apart, another
300 CE - Hieroglyphics banned in Egypt under theodosius as Christianity takes over
1000BCE Moabite stone created by Mesa, King of Moab shows uniform script with consistently practiced penmanship
700BCE - first vowels added to Greek language "reading aides"
600 CE Runes invented in northern Europe
Written texts seem to transcend human authorship - laws, decrees, etc.
Written language is precursor to advancing technologies
Writing considered a divine gift by many societies
Prometheus stole writing from the Gods = eternal torment