The document compares and contrasts the writing systems of ancient Egyptians and Sumerians. It discusses that Egyptians developed hieroglyphics around 3000 BC as pictograms that later represented ideas. Hieroglyphics had different categories of signs and used over 2000 characters. Sumerians independently developed cuneiform in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC to write their Sumerian language on clay tablets. Both writing systems were adapted and evolved over thousands of years until their use declined.

1. EVOLUTIO
N OF
WRITING-
EGYPTIAN
S VS.
SUMERIAN
S
Md.Rezwanul Hoque
2021345

2. INTRODUCTION
 By around 3000 B.C., Egyptians began to use a form of writing called
Hieroglyphs.
 It comes from the Greek “hieros” meaning sacred and “glyphe” meaning
carving
 The development of hieroglyphics first began as simple pictograms (pictures
that represent the object that it actually depicted).
 Later pictures came to represent ideas & so that if you saw a sun in a scene,
it might symbolize not only the sun but also daytime, warmth, or light.
These were known as ideograms.

3. WRITING
 Hieroglyphics form of writing used by the
ancient Egyptians.
 This word is called 'hieroglyphs'. Its was
how the ancient Egyptians got to record
they’re information.
 signs are divided into three major
categories, logograms, signs that write out
morphemes; phonograms, signs that
represent one or more sounds; and
determinatives, signs that denote neither
morpheme or sound but help with the
meaning of a group of signs that are after
them.
 This writing uses more than 2,000
hieroglyphic characters and our uses only
26 letter-characters

4. WRITING SYSTEMS
 Hieroglyphics may have developed simultaneously
with cuneiform in Sumerian.
 Hieroglyphics was NOT the only Egyptian form of
writing. They had two others: hieratic (priestly)
and demotic (popular
 Where hieroglyphics was considered a sacred
script and used to describe religious matters,
hieratic and demotic were used for everyday
matters.

5. THREE KINDS OF SCRIPTS

6.  Hieratic script was the common script used in ancient Egypt from about
2600 B.C. to 700 B.C.
 The word 'hieratic' comes from the Greek word (hieratika) for the script.
Hieratic was used by scribes to record everyday information, keep
records and write letters
.

7.  Plates 6 and 7 of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the
world's oldest surviving surgical document.
1600 B.C

8.  Demotic script became the common script in ancient Egypt from
about 700 B.C.
 It was called 'sekh shat' ('writing for documents') by the ancient
Egyptians. The word 'demotic' comes from the Greek word (demotika)
for the script. Demotic was used for government records, literature
and letters.

9. MAKING PAPYRUS PAPER
 The ancient Egyptians kept most of their records on papyrus, a weed
that grows in the marshes of the Nile Delta.
 Papyrus usually grow 2–3 meters (5–9 ft) tall, and the pith is used to
make paper.

10. CONT.
 Papyrus sheets are made by a four stage process
 A fresh papyrus plant is cut into long strips
 The strips are laid out on a flat surface in a criss-
cross pattern
 The sheet is pressed and left to dry Sheets are joined
together with glue to make long scrolls.

11. PAPYRUS PAPER
 After the sheets were dried, they were used for
keeping records.
 The sheets were then rolled up and tied with papyrus
string.

12. THE SCRIBE
 Not everyone learned to read and write
in ancient Egypt. Only one group of
people called scribes was allowed to
have this knowledge.
 Scribes were people in ancient Egypt
(usually men) who learned to read and
write.
 Most scribes were men, but there is
evidence of some female doctors. These
women would have been trained as
scribes so that they could read medical
texts.

13. CONT.
 To become a scribe, you had to attend a special school for
scribes to learn how to read and write hieroglyphic and
hieratic scripts.
 Students spent a lot of time practicing the signs by copying
them onto sheets of papyrus, old pieces of pottery or flakes
of limestone.

14. HIEROGLYPHICS: OVERVIEW
 The ancient Egyptians believed that writing was invented
by the god Thoth and called their hieroglyphic script
"mdwtntr" (God's Words).
 The word “hieroglyph” comes from the Greek hieros
(sacred) plus glypho (inscriptions) and was first used by
Clement of Alexandria.
 The earliest known examples of writing in Egypt have
been dated to 3,400 BC. The latest dated inscription in
hieroglyphs was made on the gate post of a temple at
Philae in 396 AD.

15. CONT.
 Hieroglyphics: 3200 B.C. – 400 B.C.
 By the 4th century, few Egyptians were capable
of reading hieroglyphs.
 After the Roman Emperor Theodosius I ordered
the closure of all pagan temples throughout the
Roman empire in the late 4th century AD,
knowledge of the hieroglyphic script was lost
until the early 19th century, when Napoleon
invaded Egypt and discovered the Rosetta
Stone.

16. HIEROGLYPHIC ALPHABET
 The basic hieroglyph characters are referred to as the
ALPHABET. They 'spell out' names or anything which can't
be represented by other characters. The alphabet characters
are read as the sound of the object they represented.
 Although vowels were used in the spoken language, they
were not usually written unless it might be confusing if left
out

17. HIEROGLYPHIC: DETERMINATIVES
 Determinatives don't represent sounds. The
meanings they imply help eliminate confusion by
putting the writings in proper context. These special
characters clarify a statement by carrying a distinct
meaning. The appearance of a determinative put the
writing in context based on its meaning.
 Remember the rebus?

18. HIEROGLYPHIC :STANDARDS
 Hieroglyphic writing was
written in columns or rows.
Reading direction is
determined by the direction
that human and animal figures
faced. Reading starts from the
direction that figures face and
continues in the opposite
direction
 But they were usually written
left to right. Hieroglyphs could
be written left to right
 The Egyptians liked symmetry

19. SUMERIAN : INTRODUCTION
 Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient
Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. 3500-3000 BCE. It is considered the
most significant among the many cultural contributions of the
Sumerians and the greatest among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk
which advanced the writing of cuneiform c. 3200 BCE.

20. CUNEIFORM
 Cuneiform” is a general word , like “alphabet,” used to
describe a kind of writing.
 In fact, "cuneiform" came from Latin cuneus, which
means "wedge". Therefore, any script can be called
cuneiform as long as individual signs are composed of
wedges.
 Sumerians created cuneiform script over 5000 years ago.
It was the world's first written language. The last known
cuneiform inscription was written in 75 AD.
 Cuneiform was adapted by the Akkadians, Babylonians,
Sumerians and Assyrians to write their own languages and
was used in Mesopotamia for about 3000 years.

21. CUNEIFORM :TABLETS
 Clay tablets were the primary media for everyday written
communication and were used extensively in schools.
 Tablets were routinely recycled and if permanence was called
for, they could be baked hard in a kiln.
 Many of the tablets found by archaeologists were preserved
because they were baked when attacking armies burned the
building in which they were kept.

22. DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING
 Cuneiform was used by other people like the Sumerians and
Akkadians because they needed to be able to record
information but they had not established a written form of
language .
 Cuneiform was used to record a variety of information such
as temple activities, business information, business and
trade.
 Cuneiform was also used to write and trade. Cuneiform was
also used to write stories, myths, and personal letters.
Stories, myths, and personal letters.

23. THE ENDING OF CUNEIFORM
 The Ending Of Cuneiform This trend increased as the
script was modified and distributed to even more places
around Mesopotamia.
 When the Hittites and Old Persians got hold of it, the script
was being used for Indo-European languages as well.
Finally, someone in Ugarit got fed up with the whole thing,
so he/she decided to invent an "alphabet" of sorts with one
symbol per sound. (This revolution in writing wasn't
discovered in Sumerian times.)

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