Today’s Class

• Cities / Urbanism

• Origins of Writing

• Film: Mesopotamia: Return to Eden

Cities: Some Defining Features

• Physical Size

• Population Size

• Social Organization

– Class; Ethnicity

• Economic Organization

– Transit Systems; Industrial Areas; Business Areas

• Religious / Ritual Areas

• Political Control Structures & Areas

• Monumental Architecture

• Central Organization

Origins of Writing

• Emergence of Speech & Language

• Writing

• Multiple Independent Origins

• Oral Tradition vs. “History”

• Messages Across Space & Time

Symbols & Symbolism

• Something (verbal or non-verbal) that arbitrarily and by convention stands for something else

• Often many meanings

• Often ambiguous

• Can’t be combined using grammar

Precursors of Writing

• Tokens, Bulla, & Tablets in Mesopotamia

– By 10000 BP

• Little Change for 5000 years

• Oracle Bones in China by 3500 BP

Early Writing

• Mesopotamia – 5200 BP

– Rise of Urbanism & Trade

– Economic Transactions

• Egypt – 5100 BP

– Hieroglyphics

– Dynastic Hierarchies

• Mesoamerica (Maya) – 2200 BP

– Hieroglyphics

– Calendar

– Royal Propaganda / Genealogy

Mesopotamia

• Primarily for Economic Transactions

• Earliest as Pictographic; Later Cuneiform

Egypt

• Generally Dynastic Hierarchies

Maya

• Calendar, Royal Propaganda, Genealogy

Functions of Writing

• Mnemonic / Memory

– Human & Natural History

• Expands Communication

– Space & Time

• Words as Objects

– Meaning & Interpretation

• Social Control

– Government: Laws, Taxation, Draft, etc.

• Aesthetic / Art

Consequences of Writing

• Exclusivity

– Requires Cultural Knowledge

• Power

– Over People & Nature

• Deception

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