1. Cuneiform & Hieroglyphics
The World’s First Writing Systems

2. Writing
Allows us to record history, _______ and religious texts and to create literature.
Essential to the spread of ________________ and the advancement of ideas

3. Pictograms Began in ________________ around 3500 BCE
1st developed to record exchange of goods & items being ______________________
Only _________________ words represented
First evolution: pictographs turned 90 degrees to make them easier to write
2nd evolution: symbols for abstract ideas and sounds

4. Cuneiform Written with a stylus in _______ clay
Evolved from pictograms as need arose to represent ___________ ideas
Priests were the 1st scribes, but it became a separate ______________
Scribes had _______ social standing & held important government offices
Spread to Egypt & ______________
Cuneiform means “wedge-shaped” referring to the wedge shapes in the writing created by the wedge-shaped tip of the stylus
Also used chisels on stone/metal, paint on terracotta
Everyone from kings to peasants used scribes: keep government records, read and write letters and other documents for them

5. Unlocking Cuneiform
Deciphered by Henry Rawlinson from an ____________________ on the Behistun Rock
Description of Persian King Darius I in ____ languages
Rawlinson compared the old ____________________ text to the cuneiform to translate it
Relief carving shows Darius receiving the submission of his enemies

6. Hieroglyphs Fully developed by ______ BCE
About _______ characters (100 ideograms phonograms)
Used for ____________ writing by priests
____________ for everyday use
Hieratic: simplified characters more suitable for __________ writing with a brush or reed pen on wood or papyrus
Probably inspired by early Mesopotamian pictograms
Ideograms: represent specific idea/word
Phonograms: represent specific sound

7. Demotic By ______ BCE hieratic had evolved into demotic
Used by scribes for ____________ & record keeping
Use of hieroglyphs ______________ with Egyptian empire

8. Unlocking Hieroglyphs
Rosetta Stone was discovered by ________________ army in 1799
Describes honours bestowed on a ____________ king of Egypt in 195 BCE in hieroglyphs, demotic & Greek
Translated by Jean-François Champollion

9. Unlocking Hieroglyphs
Champollion compared the Greek name of the king with a cartouche (__________ with a line on one side that contains a royal name) from the hieroglyphs
Examining other cartouches, he began to decipher the common __________________ represented by the characters
Cartouches he used to help him decipher included Cleopatra, Ramses and Thutmose