Enmerkar was an ancient Sumerian ruler to whom the construction of the city of Uruk and a 420-year reign was attributed. According to literary sources, he led various campaigns against the land of Aratta .
91-523: He is credited in Sumerian legend as the inventor of writing . A excerpt of an ancient text states " Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat (the message), the Lord of Kulaba (Enmerkar) patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay. " This is the earliest known story in history about the invention of writing. The tradition of Enmerkar as
182-520: A contest with Enmerkar to see on which side Inanna lay. The unnamed lord of Aratta sends three riddles to reconsider his submission: The messenger complains that the messages have become too long and difficult to remember and reproduce. Enmerkar invents writing, which throws the lord of Aratta into despair. The land of Aratta suffers famine and drought. Inanna confirms her predilection for Enmerkar but also tells him to institute peaceful trade with Aratta from now on. Ensuhgirana, lord of Aratta, claims to be
273-528: A defeat in war and the devastation of Akkad . The Matter of Aratta is a group of four narrative poems in Sumerian, dealing with the various ways Enmerkar won supremacy over the legendary city of Aratta. The main motif of all four poems is the defeat of Aratta throughout the wilderness by nonmilitary means to win the favor of the goddess Inanna . The cycle originated in the Ur III period (2112-2004 BC) and were subjects of scribal schools from Ur and Nippur during
364-543: A famine in Sumer. Utu sends a wise woman who catches up with the wizard on the banks of the Euphrates, both start a competition of magic. The wizard throws fish spawn in the river and draws out an animal; five times the wise woman draws out another animal which hunts the wizard's animal. The wizard admits his defeat and pleads for his life, but he is killed and the spell is broken. Ensuhgirana admits defeat and submits to Enmerkar. In
455-516: A general-purpose writing system with logograms, syllables, and numerals. From the 26th century BCE, the system was adapted to write the Akkadian language , and from there to others, such as Hurrian and Hittite . Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian . Geoffrey Sampson states that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and, probably [were], invented under
546-635: A language of scholarship. Arabic script was adopted as the primary script of the Persian language and the Old Turkic language . This script also heavily influenced the development of the cursive scripts of Greek, the Slavic languages , Latin , and other languages. The Arabic language also served to spread the Hindu–Arabic numeral system throughout Europe. By the 11th century, the city of Córdoba, Andalusia in what
637-583: A number of Italic scripts derived from the western Greeks. Due to the cultural dominance of the Roman state, the other Old Italic scripts have not survived in any great quantity, and the Etruscan language is mostly lost. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the production and transmission of literature that had previously been widespread across the Roman world became largely confined to
728-454: A number of other fictional and real Mesopotamian rulers, been identified with the historically unattested biblical figure of Nimrod . The historian David Rohl has claimed parallels between Enmerkar, builder of Uruk, and Nimrod , ruler of biblical Erech (Uruk), who, according to some extra-biblical legends, was supposedly the architect of the Tower of Babel . One parallel Rohl has noted is between
819-663: A slow decline in importance as the Islamic Golden Age ended. The revival of literacy development in Western Europe led to many innovations in the Latin alphabet and the diversification of the alphabet to codify the phonologies of the various languages. The nature of writing has been constantly evolving, particularly due to the development of new technologies over the centuries. The pen, printing press , computer, and mobile phone are all technological developments which have altered what
910-541: A time after the reformation, expressed the importance of religion in the control of the state and state bureaucracies. In Europe and its colonies in the Americas, the introduction of the printing press and decreasing cost of paper and printing allowed for greater access of ordinary citizens to gain information about the government and conditions in other regions within the jurisdictions. The Reformation with an emphasis on individual reading of sacred texts, eventually increased
1001-509: Is Enheduanna , who is credited as the author of a number of works of Sumerian literature, including Exaltation of Inanna , in the Sumerian language during the 24th century BCE. The next earliest named author is Ptahhotep , who is credited with authoring The Maxims of Ptahhotep , an instructional book for young men in Egyptian composed in the 23rd century BCE. The Epic of Gilgamesh
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#17328523828371092-465: Is a notable early poem, but it can also be seen as a political glorification of the historical King Gilgamesh of Sumer whose natural and supernatural accomplishments are recounted. Hamazi Hamazi or Khamazi ( Sumerian : 𒄩𒈠𒍣𒆠 , ha-ma-zi , or 𒄩𒈠𒍢𒆠 Ḫa-ma-zi 2 ) was an ancient kingdom or city-state which became prominent during the Early Dynastic period . Its exact location
1183-578: Is attested as early as the 7th millennium BCE, with well-known examples including: Other examples of proto-writing include quipu , a system of knotted cords used as mnemonic devices within the Inca Empire (15th century CE). The origins of writing are more generally attributed to the start of the pottery-phase of the Neolithic , when clay tokens were used to record specific amounts of livestock or commodities. These tokens were initially impressed on
1274-590: Is attested only indirectly. The common manuscript materials in Mesopotamia world were the tablet and the roll, the former probably having a Chaldean origin, the latter an Egyptian. The tablets of the Chaldeans are small pieces of clay, somewhat crudely shaped into a form resembling a pillow, and thickly inscribed with cuneiform characters. Similar use has been seen in hollow cylinders, or prisms of six or eight sides, formed of fine terracotta , sometimes glazed, on which
1365-400: Is evidenced by still existing papyrus of the earliest Theban dynasties. As the papyrus, being in great demand, and exported to all parts of the world, became very costly, other materials were often used instead of it, among which is mentioned leather, a few leather mills of an early period having been found in the tombs. Parchment , using sheepskins left after the wool was removed for cloth,
1456-641: Is now southern Spain had become one of the world's foremost intellectual centers, and was the site of the largest library in Europe. By the 14th century, the Renaissance in Europe led to a temporary revival of the importance of Greek, and a slow revival of Latin as a significant literary language . A similar though smaller emergence occurred in Eastern Europe, especially in Russia. At the same time Arabic and Persian began
1547-440: Is said to be the grandfather of Gilgamos, who later becomes king of Babylon (i.e., Gilgamesh of Uruk). Several recent scholars have suggested that this "Seuechoros" or "Euechoros" is moreover to be identified with Enmerkar of Uruk, as well as the fictional Euechous named by Berossus as being the first king of Chaldea and Assyria. This last name Euechous (also appearing as Evechius , and in many other variants) has, along with
1638-529: Is unknown. In the early days of archaeology two pottery fragments were found in Nippur which it was assumed were part of the same vessel (CBS 9571+CBS 9577). One referred to a Uhub /Utug ruler of Kish and the other to an unknown ruler defeating Hamazi. Subsequent analysis showed that the two fragments did not in fact belong to the same vessel. The relevant fragment (BM 129402) reads "[To the deity DN P]ussussu, vanquisher of Hamazi, dedi[cated] (this vessel).". One of
1729-531: Is written, and the medium through which the written word is produced. The mediums, materials, and technologies used by literate societies for writing help determine how writing systems work, what writing is used for, and what social impact it has. For example, the physical durability of the materials used directly determines what historical examples of writing have survived for later analysis: while bodies of inscriptions in stone, bone, or metal are attested from each ancient literate society, much manuscript culture
1820-517: The Ancient South Arabian script , which had initially been used to write early Geʽez texts. Most alphabetic writing systems presently in use either descended from Proto-Sinaitic—usually via the Phoenician alphabet —or were directly inspired by its descendants. In Italy, about 500 years separated the early Old Italic scripts from Plautus ( c. 750–250 BCE ), and in the case of
1911-530: The Byzantine and Sasanian empires, where the primary literary languages were Greek and Persian respectively—though other languages such as Syriac and Coptic were also important. The spread of Islam in the 7th century brought about the rapid establishment of Arabic as a major literary language in much of the Mediterranean and Central Asia. Arabic and Persian quickly began to overshadow Greek's role as
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#17328523828372002-626: The Germanic peoples , the corresponding time span is again similar, from the first Elder Futhark inscriptions to early texts like the Abrogans ( c. 200–750 CE ). These early abjads remained of marginal importance for several centuries, and it is only towards the end of the Bronze Age that forms of Proto-Sinaitic script split into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet ( c. 1400 BCE ),
2093-743: The Hebrew , Arabic and Syriac abjads—with descendants spread as far as the Mongolian script . The South Arabian alphabet gave rise to the Ge'ez abugida . The history of the Greek alphabet began as early as the 8th century BCE, when the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet for their own use. The letters of the Greek alphabet generally visually correspond to those of the Phoenician alphabet, and both came to be arranged using
2184-551: The Isin-Larsa period (2017-1763 BC). The poems, aimed to praise the glorious past of Uruk, were a political movement of the Third Dynasty of Ur to consolidate themselves as the legitimate and spiritual heirs of the ancient rulers of Uruk. In Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta , Enmerkar, king of Uruk, wants to embellish his city with precious metals and stones, goods that are only found in the wealthy city of Aratta, which lies behind
2275-501: The Qin and Han dynasties, which set out a full system of social control and governance, with criminal procedures and accountability for both government officials and citizens. These laws required complex reporting and documenting procedures to facilitate hierarchical supervision from the village up to the imperial center. While common law developed in a mostly oral environment in England after
2366-476: The 13th century BCE. The earliest attested Chinese writing comprise the body of inscriptions on oracle bones and bronze vessels dating to the Late Shang period ( c. 1200 – c. 1050 BCE ), with the earliest of these dated c. 1250 BCE . Cretan hieroglyphs are found on artifacts of Crete (2nd millennium BCE, MM I to MM III, overlapping with Linear A from MM IIA at
2457-627: The 3rd century BCE, and writing was in continuous use from the 1st century CE until shortly after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs. The Phoenician alphabet is the continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet into the Iron Age ; it in turn gave rise to the Aramaic and Greek alphabets. To date, most of
2548-610: The Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes. Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train as scribes, in the service of temple, royal, and military authorities. The first alphabetic writing was developed by workers in the Sinai Peninsula to write Semitic languages c. 2000 BCE . This script worked by giving Egyptian hieratic letters Semitic sound values. The Geʽez script native to Ethiopia and Eritrea descends from
2639-535: The Egyptian one. However, scholars have noted that the attestation at Abydos is singular and sudden, while the gradual evolution of the Mesopotamian system is lengthy and well-documented, with its predecessor token system used in agriculture and accounting attested as early as 8000 BCE. As there is no evidence of contact between the Chinese Shang dynasty ( c. 1600 – c. 1050 BCE ) and
2730-758: The Elder Siamun Psusennes II Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt Harsiese A Takelot II Pedubast I Shoshenq VI Osorkon III Takelot III Rudamun Menkheperre Ini Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Egypt Tefnakht Bakenranef ( Sargonid dynasty ) Tiglath-Pileser Shalmaneser Marduk-apla-iddina II Sargon Sennacherib Marduk-zakir-shumi II Marduk-apla-iddina II Bel-ibni Ashur-nadin-shumi Nergal-ushezib Mushezib-Marduk Esarhaddon Ashurbanipal Ashur-etil-ilani Sinsharishkun Sin-shumu-lishir Ashur-uballit II History of writing#Recorded history of writing The history of writing traces
2821-672: The Old Kingdom c. 2150 BCE . The Torah—comprising the first five books of the Hebrew Bible —codified the laws of Ancient Israel. Many other codes were to follow in Greece and Rome, with Roman law to serve as a model for church canon law and secular law throughout much of Europe during later periods. In China, the earliest indications of written codifications of law or books of punishments are inscriptions on bronze vessels in 536 BCE. The earliest extant full set of laws dates back to
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2912-492: The Roman period, with the return of the church and the Norman conquest , customary law began to be inscribed as were precedents of the courts; however, many elements remained oral, with documents only memorializing public oaths, wills, land transfers, court judgments, and ceremonies. During the late medieval period, however, documents gained authority for agreements, transactions, and laws. Writing has been central to expanding many of
3003-406: The aim of producing and disseminating knowledge-bearing texts; the contemporary world identifies such social groups as disciplines and their products as disciplinary literatures. The invention of writing facilitated the sharing, comparing, criticizing, and evaluating of texts, resulting in knowledge becoming a more communal property across wider geographic and temporal domains. Religious texts formed
3094-449: The archives at Ebla in Syria bears a copy of a diplomatic message sent from king Irkab-Damu of Ebla to king Zizi of Hamazi, along with a large quantity of wood, hailing him as a brother, and requesting him to send mercenaries in exchange. A tablet from a few years later states " ... 470 g. of silver of the king of A. which the king of Hamazi has handed over and is his giving (as) a gift to PN,
3185-402: The bare idea of writing between cultures. Due to the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing, "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt." During the 1990s, symbols originally inscribed between 3400 and 3200 BCE were discovered at Abydos , which shed some doubt on the previous notion that the Mesopotamian sign system predated
3276-473: The characters were traced with a small stylus, in some specimens so minutely as to require the aid of a magnifying glass. In Egypt the principal writing material was of quite a different sort. Wooden tablets are found pictured on the monuments, while papyrus was also used as early as the 4th millennium BCE. The papyrus reed grew chiefly in Lower Egypt and had various economic means for writing. The pith
3367-409: The common knowledge of scriptural religions, and knowledge of those sacred scriptures became the focus of institutions of religious belief, interpretation, and schooling. Scholars have disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like literature, but the oldest surviving literary texts date from a full millennium after the invention of writing. The earliest literary author known by name
3458-409: The content of linguistic utterances can be accurately reconstructed by later readers, is a later development. As proto-writing is not capable of fully reflecting the grammar and lexicon used in languages, it is often difficult or impossible to deduce what the author intended to communicate. The earliest uses of writing were to document agricultural transactions and contracts in ancient Sumer , but it
3549-412: The core functions of governance through law, regulation, taxation, and documentary surveillance of citizens; all dependent on growth of bureaucracy which elaborates and administers rules and policies and maintains records. These developments which rely on writing increase the power and extent of states. At the same time writing has increased the ability of citizens to become informed about the operations of
3640-408: The culture. Scholars have disagreed concerning when prehistory becomes history and when proto-writing became true writing. Sumerian writing evolved from a system of clay tokens used to represent commodities. By the end of the 4th millennium BCE, this had evolved into a method of keeping accounts, which recorded numbers using a round stylus pressed into the clay at different angles. This system
3731-461: The daughter-in-law of the ruler Ur-Iskur, when she went (back) to Hamazi". A further possible ensi, under Su-Sin, was Arad-Nanna, though that is thinly attested. According to a letter from Puzur-Numušda, governor of Kazallu , in the last days of the Ur III empire wrote to Ibbi-Sin, last ruler of that empire and claimed that the land of Hamazi was plundered by Ishbi-Erra of Isin . He also claimed that
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3822-441: The development of writing systems and how their use transformed and was transformed by different societies. The use of writing prefigures various social and psychological consequences associated with literacy and literary culture. Each historical invention of writing emerged from systems of proto-writing that used ideographic and mnemonic symbols but were not capable of fully recording spoken language. True writing , where
3913-432: The distribution of shares, and records management . Economic theory itself only began to be developed in the latter eighteenth century through the writings of such theorists as François Quesnay and Adam Smith . Even the concepts of an economy and a national economy were established through their texts and the texts of their colleagues. Since then economics has developed as a field with many authors contributing texts to
4004-469: The earliest references to Hamazi is found in the epic literary composition Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta , where Enmerkar prays to Enki about the confusion of languages in the various inhabited lands, at the time of the building of the ziggurats in Eridu and Uruk . Hamazi is the only land mentioned in this prayer with the epithet "many-tongued". A sequel, Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana also mentions that
4095-471: The earliest true writing systems, both having gradually evolved from proto-writing between 3400 and 3100 BCE. The Proto-Elamite script is also believed to have been in use during this period. Regarding Egyptian hieroglyphs, scholars point to very early differences with Sumerian cuneiform "in structure and style" as to why the two systems "(must) have developed independently," and if any "stimulus diffusion" of writing did occur, it only served to transmit
4186-566: The earliest). Linear B, the writing system of the Mycenaean Greeks , has been deciphered while Linear A has yet to be deciphered. The sequence and the geographical spread of the three overlapping, but distinct, writing systems can be summarized as follows: Of several symbol systems used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica , the Maya script appears to be the best developed, and has been fully deciphered. The earliest inscriptions identifiable as Maya date to
4277-417: The emergence of newspapers with national circulation along with scripted national radio and television news broadcasts also created horizons of attention through the 20th century, with both benefits and costs. Much of what is considered knowledge is inscribed in written text and is the result of communal processes of production, sharing, and evaluation among social groups and institutions bound together with
4368-452: The end, Aratta submits. The text also mentions that fifty years into Enmerkar's reign, the Martu people had arisen in all of Sumer and Akkad, necessitating the building of a wall in the desert to protect Uruk. In a much later Greek legend related by Aelian (ca. AD 200), the king of Babylon, Euechoros or Seuechoros (also appearing in many variants as Sevekhoros , earlier Sacchoras , etc.),
4459-1839: The epithet "the Hunter", applied to Nimrod, and the suffix -kar at the end of Enmerkar's name, which means "hunter". Rohl has also argued that Eridu near Ur is the original site of the city of Babel and that the incomplete ziggurat found there is none other than the Biblical tower itself. ( Shamshi-Adad dynasty 1808–1736 BCE) (Amorites) Shamshi-Adad I Ishme-Dagan I Mut-Ashkur Rimush Asinum Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi (Non-dynastic usurpers 1735–1701 BCE) Puzur-Sin Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi ( Adaside dynasty 1700–722 BCE) Bel-bani Libaya Sharma-Adad I Iptar-Sin Bazaya Lullaya Shu-Ninua Sharma-Adad II Erishum III Shamshi-Adad II Ishme-Dagan II Shamshi-Adad III Ashur-nirari I Puzur-Ashur III Enlil-nasir I Nur-ili Ashur-shaduni Ashur-rabi I Ashur-nadin-ahhe I Enlil-Nasir II Ashur-nirari II Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-rim-nisheshu Ashur-nadin-ahhe II Second Intermediate Period Sixteenth Dynasty Abydos Dynasty Seventeenth Dynasty (1500–1100 BCE) Kidinuid dynasty Igehalkid dynasty Untash-Napirisha Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt Smendes Amenemnisu Psusennes I Amenemope Osorkon
4550-417: The first person/people to put cuneiform to clay tablets; and that writing did indeed exist before Enmerkar, citing the fact that the Lord of Aratta understood the message, but those writing were previously done in different materials. However, assyriologist Dina Katz states that any attempt to find a historical explanation of the legendary account invalidates the claim that Enmerkar invented the clay tablet and
4641-543: The form of governance is. Extensive bureaucracies arose in the ancient Near East and China which relied on a literate class of scribes and bureaucrats. In the Ancient Near East this was carried out through the formation of scribal schools, while in China this led to a series of written imperial examinations based on classic texts which in effect regulated education over millennia. Literacy remained associated with rise in
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#17328523828374732-579: The founder of Uruk seems to date from the Jemdet Nasr period (3100-2900 BC) as found in the Ad-gi 4 list . The lexical list mentions Enmerkar and his wife Enmerkarzi as the builders of a town and the bringers of agriculture. A bilingual edition of the list has been found at Nineveh, indicating that the tradition was transmitted into the first millennium. Enmerkar and (his) wife Enmerkar-zi, who know (how to build) towns (made) brick and brick pavements. When
4823-637: The god Enlil had promised Isbi-Erra dominion "from the land of Hamazi (down) to the Sea of Magan". Hamazi is thought to have been located in Zagros Mountain region somewhere between the Upper Zab and Diyala Rivers . The mention of a "Šu-Eštar of Hamazi" and another person named Ititi from there in Old Akkadian documents found at Nuzi sparked suggestions that Hamazi was nearby. One researcher proposed that Hamazi
4914-509: The government bureaucracy, and printing as it emerged was tightly controlled by the government, with vernacular texts only emerging later and then being limited in their range up through the early twentieth century and the fall of the Ching dynasty. In ancient Greece and Rome, class distinctions of citizen and slave, wealthy and poor limited education and participation. In Medieval and early modern Europe church dominance of education, both before and for
5005-449: The independent development of writing within Egypt. The Abydos glyphs, found in tomb U-J, are written on ivory and are likely labels for other goods found in the grave. While sign usage in Mesopotamian tokens is attested c. 8000 BCE , Egyptian writing appears suddenly in the late 4th millennium BCE. Frank J. Yurco states that depictions of pharaonic iconography such as
5096-454: The influence of the latter", and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia". However, more recent scholars have held that the evidence for direct influence is sparse. During the 1990s, the discovery of glyphs at Abydos dated between 3400 and 3200 BCE has challenged the hypothesis that writing diffused from Mesopotamia to Egypt, pointing instead to
5187-409: The inventory of hieroglyphic symbols derived from "fauna and flora used in the signs [which] are essentially African" and in "regards to writing, we have seen that a purely Nilotic, hence African origin not only is not excluded, but probably reflects the reality", although he acknowledges the geographical location of Egypt made it a receptacle for many influences. Writing was of political importance to
5278-674: The literate civilizations of the Near East, and the methods of logographic and phonetic representation in Chinese characters are distinct from those used in cuneiform and hieroglyphs, written Chinese is considered to be an independent development. During the Early Bronze Age (3300–2100 BCE), the first writing systems evolved from systems of proto-writing , which used ideographic and mnemonic symbols to communicate information, but did not record human language directly. Proto-writing
5369-620: The lugalbanda poems ( Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave and Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird or a version that is a mixture of both) Enmerkar marches against Aratta, his warchief Lugalbanda falls ill and is abandoned in a cave. He feasts Anzud's chick and gains the legendary bird's favor. Lugalbanda is rewarded with the gift of speed and goes to Enmerkar, who is laying siege to Aratta. The king sends Lugalbanda to ask for Inanna's advice in Uruk, which does. At
5460-400: The messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat (the message), the Lord of Kulaba patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay. The emergence of writing in a given area is usually followed by several centuries of fragmentary inscriptions . Historians mark the "historicity" of a culture by the presence of coherent texts written by
5551-467: The mountains. Inanna , which is the goddess of Aratta, favors Enmerkar and advises him to send a messenger with a challenge to Aratta, requisitioning what he wants and enforcing his claim by stating that she favors him. Enmerkar casts the spell of Nudimmud , which makes Enlil reunite all the languages (of Shubur , Hamazi , Sumer , Akkad , and the Martu land) into one in order to be debates between kings. The lord of Aratta refuses but wants to enter into
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#17328523828375642-600: The path of an ox-drawn plough, and was used until the 6th century. Greek is in turn the source for all the modern scripts of Europe. The most widespread descendant of Greek is the Latin script , named for the Latins , a central Italian people who came to dominate Europe with the rise of Rome. Around the 5th century BCE, the Romans adopted writing from the Etruscan civilization , who wrote in
5733-425: The physical properties of the paper itself, while the latter involves using additives to improve strength. According to Denise Schmandt-Besserat , writing had its origins in the counting and cataloguing of agricultural produce, and then economic transactions involving the produce. Government tax rolls followed thereafter. Written documents became essential for the accumulation and accounting of wealth by individuals,
5824-531: The professional literature, and governments collecting data, instituting policies and creating institutions to manage and advance their economies. Deirdre McCloskey has examined the rhetorical strategies and discursive construction of modern economic theory. Graham Smart has examined in depth how the Bank of Canada uses writing to cooperatively produce policies based on economic data and then to communicate strategically with relevant publics. Private legal documents for
5915-400: The recipient of Inanna's favors and demands the submission of Uruk. Enmerkar refuses and points out that he is the only true and constant lover of Inanna, however, the lord of Aratta refuses to submit to Uruk. A sorcerer from Hamazi offers his services to break the stalemate, services which are accepted by Enshugirana. The wizard casts a spell on the cattle of the goddess Nisaba , and there is
6006-602: The representative-messenger, (for) the king of Ebla". A later analysis of the toponyms in the tablets in question indicate that the Hamazi mentioned in the Elba tablets is actually a different Hamazi, at modern Qalah Hom, the “citadel hill” of modern Homs. Hamazi was one of the provinces of Ur under the reign of Amar-Sin during the Ur III period . Two governors or ensis during this reign named Lu-nanna son of Namhani, and Ur-Ishkur are recorded in tablets from Drehem. The first, Lu-nanna,
6097-659: The rise of capitalism. Paper money (initially appearing in China in the 11th century) and other financial instruments relied on writing, initially in the form of letters and then evolving into specialized genres , to explain the transactions and guarantees (from individuals, banks, or governments) of value inhering in the documents. With the growth of economic activity in late Medieval and Renaissance Europe, sophisticated methods of accounting and calculating value emerged, with such calculations both carried out in writing and explained in manuals. The creation of corporations then proliferated documents surrounding organization, management,
6188-647: The royal crowns, Horus falcons and victory scenes were concentrated in the Upper Egyptian Naqada and A-Group cultures. He further elaborates that "Egyptian writing arose in Naqadan Upper Egypt and A-Group Nubia , and not in the Delta cultures, where the direct Western Asian contact was made, [which] further vitiates the Mesopotamian-influence argument". Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar argues that
6279-450: The sale of land appeared in Mesopotamia in the early 3rd millennium BCE, not long after the initial appearance of cuneiform writing. The first written legal codes followed shortly thereafter c. 2100 BCE with the most well known being the Code of Hammurabi, inscribed on stone stelae throughout Babylon. c. 1750 BCE . While ancient Egypt did not have codified laws, legal decrees and private contracts did appear in
6370-403: The same alphabetical order . Those adapting the Phoenician system added three letters to the end of the series, called the "supplementals". Several varieties of the Greek alphabet developed. One, known as the Cumae alphabet , was used west of Athens and in southern Italy. The other variation, known as Eastern Greek, was used in present-day Turkey and by the Athenians, and eventually the rest of
6461-405: The sorcerer of Hamazi, Urgirinuna, went to Aratta after Hamazi "had been destroyed"; he is later sent by the Lord of Aratta on a failed mission attempting to bring Enmerkar into submission. According to the semi-literary Sumerian King List , king Hadanish of Hamazi held hegemony over Sumer after defeating Kish, but was in turn defeated by Enshakushanna of Uruk . A clay tablet found in
6552-571: The spread of literacy beyond the governing classes and opened the door to wider knowledge and criticism of government actions. Divisions in English society during the 16th century, the English Civil War of the 17th century, and the increased role of parliament that followed, along with the splitting of political religious control were accompanied by pamphlet wars . Newspaper publishing and journalism , having origins in commercial information, soon
6643-476: The state, and religious organizations as well as the transactions of trade, loans, inheritance, and documentation of ownership. With such documentation and accounting larger accumulations of wealth became more possible, along with the power that accompanied wealth, most prominently to the benefit of royalty, the state, and religions. Contracts and loans supported the growth of long-distance international trade with accompanying networks for import and export, supporting
6734-428: The state, to become more organized in expressing needs and concerns, to identify with regions and states, and to form constituencies with particular views and interests; the history of journalism is closely linked to citizen information, regional and national identity, and expression of interests. These changes have greatly influenced the nature of states, increasing the visibility of people and their views no matter what
6825-459: The surface of round clay envelopes and then stored in them. The tokens were then progressively replaced by flat tablets, on which signs were recorded with a stylus. Actual writing is first recorded in Uruk (modern Iraq), at the end of the 4th millennium BCE, and soon after in various parts of the Near East. An ancient Sumerian poem gives the first known story of the invention of writing: Because
6916-423: The symbols used in writing generally correspond to elements of spoken language. In general, systems of symbolic communication like signage, painting, maps, and mathematics are distinguished from writing systems, which require knowledge of an associated spoken language to read a text. The norms of writing generally evolve more slowly than those of speech; as a result, linguistic features are frequently preserved in
7007-629: The undeciphered Byblos syllabary , and the South Arabian alphabet ( c. 1200 BCE ). Proto-Canaanite, which was probably influenced by the Byblos syllabary, in turn inspired the Ugaritic alphabet ( c. 1300 BCE ). Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous script native to western Anatolia , used to record the Hieroglyphic Luwian language. It first appeared on Luwian royal seals from
7098-455: The world that spoke Greek adopted this variation. After first writing right to left, like the Phoenicians, the Greeks eventually chose to write from left to right. Occasionally however, the writer would start the next line where the previous line finished, so that the lines would read alternately left to right, then right to left, and so on. This is known as boustrophedon writing, which imitated
7189-408: The writing system, and weakens the important ideological purpose of the narrative. She further notices that the poem claiming writing as an invention by the founder of the first Sumerian city after the flood is a political and ethnic statement. During the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad , the king accused Enmerkar of not recording his experience on a stele, so as a consequence he holds him responsible for
7280-475: The writing systems used throughout Afro-Eurasia descend from either Aramaic or Greek. The Greek alphabet was the first to introduce letters representing vowel sounds. It and its descendant in the Latin alphabet gave rise to several European scripts in the first several centuries CE, including the runic , Gothic , and Cyrillic alphabets. The Aramaic alphabet evolved into the Brahmic scripts of India, as well as
7371-405: The written form of a language after they cease to appear in the corresponding spoken language. Before the 20th century, most scholarly theories of the origins of writing involved some form of monogenesis , the assumption that writing had been invented only once as cuneiform in ancient Sumer , and spread across the world from there via cultural diffusion . According to these theories, writing
7462-406: The yearly flood reached its proper level, (they made) irrigation canals and all kinds of irrigation ditches. Despite his proclaimed divine descent from the poems, Enmerkar was not deified as his successors Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh . These two last kings were already listed in the god lists of Shuruppak and received offerings during the Ur III period (2112-2004 BC). It concluded that Enmerkar
7553-403: Was gradually augmented with pictographic marks indicating what was being counted, which were made using a sharp stylus. By the 29th century BCE, writing used a wedge-shaped stylus and included phonetic elements representing syllables of the Sumerian language , and gradually replaced round-stylus and sharp-stylus markings during the 27th and 26th centuries BCE. Finally, cuneiform became
7644-448: Was only remembered as the founder and first king of Uruk. Some scholars have looked for historical matter in the literature deeds of Enmerkar and the land of Aratta. For example, an archaic tablet from Uruk recording the title " Lord of Aratta " was given as a reason to believe the traditions surrounding Enmerkar's deeds were based in reality. Moreover, there are suggestions that Enmerkar and his administration may be factually attributed as
7735-506: Was recorded in Amar-Sin year 1 and then in year 2: "when His Majesty drank beer in the house of Lu-Nanna, son of Namhani, the ruler of Hamazi.". By the 5th year of Amar-Sin Ur-Ishkur is mentioned as governor of Hamazi. In year nine his daughter-in-law is mentioned "when Ur-Iskur, ruler of Hamazi, 'brought/fetched' his daughter-in-law". We learn her name in an inscription from AS7 "when Tabur-hattum,
7826-424: Was sometimes cheaper than papyrus, which had to be imported outside Egypt. With the invention of wood-pulp paper , the cost of writing material began a steady decline. Wood-pulp paper is still used today, and in recent times efforts have been made to improve bond strength of fibers. Two main areas of examination in this regard have been "dry strength of paper" and "wet web strength". The former involves examination of
7917-490: Was soon used in the areas of finance, religion, government, and law. Writing allowed the spread of these social modalities and their associated knowledge, and ultimately the further centralization of political power. Writing systems typically satisfy three criteria. Firstly, the writing must have some purpose or meaning to it, and a point must be communicated by the text. Secondly, writing systems make use of specific symbols which may be recorded on some writing medium . Thirdly,
8008-816: Was such a particular technology that exposure through activities like trade was a much more likely means of acquisition than independent reinvention. Specifically, many theories were dependent on a literal account of the Book of Genesis , including the emphases it placed on Mesopotamia . Over time, greater awareness of the systems of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica conclusively established that writing had been independently invented multiple times. Four independent inventions of writing are most commonly recognized —in Mesopotamia ( c. 3400–3100 BCE ), Egypt ( c. 3250 BCE ), China (before c. 1250 BCE ), and Mesoamerica (before c. 1 CE ). Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs are considered
8099-413: Was taken out and divided by a pointed instrument into the thin pieces of which it is composed; it was then flattened by pressure, and the strips glued together, other strips being placed at right angles to them, so that a roll of any length might be manufactured. Writing seems to have become more widespread with the invention of papyrus in Egypt. That this material was in use in Egypt from a very early period
8190-418: Was the later Old Babylonian period city of Ekallatum . Two researchers have proposed that "Hamazi is located at the site of Kani Jowez about 10 kms SE of modern Halabjah". The Sumerian King List (SKL) lists only one ruler for Hamazi. The following list should not be considered complete: "Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to Hamazi." " 1 king; he ruled for 360 years. Then Hamazi
8281-513: Was to offer political information and was instrumental to the formation of a public sphere. Newspapers were instrumental in the sharing of information, fostering discussion, and forming political identities in the American Revolution , and then the new nation. The circulation of newspapers also created urban, regional, and state identification in the latter nineteenth century and after. A focus on national news that followed telegraphy and
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