Writing
was an important feature in the life of the
ancient civilizations.
The upper class people like rulers, priests, business, artisans were
used writing to keep records of history and track their important
matters. Eventually, the ancient civilizations used writing for
creative expressions as well as for record keeping. This produced the
world's first works of literature. It has been customary to engrave
on stone or on metal or on other durable material, with the view of
securing the permanency of the record. In order to obtain a perfectly
uniform surface on which to execute their graving, metals are used
as a material of writing. It includes lead, brass and gold.
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| Writings On A Parchment |
The
common material of writing was the tablets which are small pieces of
clays rudely shaped into a form resembling a pillow on which they
thickly inscribed with the wedge shaped characters. Writing seems to
have become more widespread with the invention of Papyrus. As the
papyrus, being in great demand, it was exported to all parts of the
world and subsequently it become very costly which led to the usage
of other materials instead of it such as Parchment which was made
from the sheep skin left after the wool was removed for making
clothes. Parchment was much cheaper than Papyrus. At the last, with
the invention of wood pulp paper, the cost of writing material began
a steady decline which led to its usage until today.
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| Rosetta Stone |
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| Writing on Rosetta Stone |
The
Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele or stone discovered near the
town of Rashid (Rosette) in the Nile Delta in 1799 which is inscribed
with three versions of writing issued at Egypt in 196 BC. The top and
middle versions are in Ancient Egyptian using Hieroglphic and demotic
scripts respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The
writing has minor differences, so Rosette Stone became key to
translating Egyptian hieroglyphs and thereby opening a window into
ancient Egyptian history.
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