2. “ Books are the carriers of civilization.
Without books history is silent,
literature dumb, science crippled.”
-Barbara Trishman
3. According to paleontologists who study
fossils and other evidences of life on earth.
the first man was a latecomer on earth
and appeared on the planet only about
one hundred thousand years ago .but
even during those primitive days man
walked upright, had adaptable hands and
brain he was a social being who
communicated with his kind.
4. He employed grunts and body language using
gestures and postures to convey his ideas and
needs to others. Slowly he developed oral
language which enable to express more
clearly the messages he wanted to convey.
In time ,various circumstances such as need
to communicate to others who are distant in
place caused man to devise symbols
corresponding to his oral messages.
5. We have evidences of this in the Old
Stone Age rock painting and
cuneiform or picture writing . From
these we have knowledge of the
earliest human act of picture-writing
and reading.
7. Picture Writing during the Sumerian
Civilization between 3000-4000 B.C
Incised in baked tablets . They served
to communicate and preserve
private letters ,business contracts
,accounts ,tax receipts, royal orders
and state records .
9. • The Egyptian civilization along the river Nile
carved their pictorial symbols known as
hieroglyphics on the stone wall of temples
and tombs, or carefully painted them on
wooden coffins . The Egyptian also invented
paper derived from papyrus plant.
• Which they wrote their signs with reed pen
and ink made by mixing water, gum and
soot.
12. • Other civilizations such as those in Syria, Phoenicia
and Palestine used more permanent writing
materials such as leather rolled into scrolls.
• But the greatest contribution to the progress of
ancient civilizations came from Phoenicians who
adopted and spread the use of letter symbols or
the alphabet
14. Due to its simplicity it was developed by other
peoples such as Greeks and Romans . The
Roman system of writing in turn to became
the basis for all the systems of being read by
modern people today.
