1. The Evolution of Writing

2. 3500 BC scribes in Sumer created cuneiform – pressing wedge shaped marks into wet clay Writing began as pictographs – pictures that represents objects. For example:

3. Over 2000 symbols were used in cuneiform Sumerians began to use symbols for sounds. For example, the Sumerian word for arrow was “tih” so the symbol arrow represented the sound “tih ”

4. Once Sumerians developed symbols for every syllable in their language they could put symbols together to write words. This reduced the number of symbols to about 600

5. The next step was creating an alphabet – a small set of letters or symbols each of which stands for a single sound Our modern alphabet began with Egyptian symbols that were modified by the Phoenicians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans.