Reflection Paper 6

The invention of writing was so essential to the establishment of the world’s great ancient civilizations because we were able to decode some of the ancient languages of the past and their meanings. Without writing I don’t think we would be able to function, we need it for so many different reasons. We wouldn’t be able to record remarkable events, take an inventory of stock, etc. Ancient civilizations used writing for those exact same reasons. Their writing may not look the same as ours does now with letters but they still wrote regardless to be able to record their history. With writing the ancient civilizations were able to match sounds to symbols. They used physical things such as a drawing of an eye or water for symbols to match what they sounded like. With their symbols they were able to tell stories and record data such as the amount of livestock one had. With the invention of writing, ancient civilizations had a whole new way of communicating to each other. They were able to get the calendar from being able to write. Writing gave them a whole new meaning and I think that they were leaving their mark in the world long after they died by carving them into stone tablets, clay, etc. I think it was a way that they thought they could be remembered forever. I feel that being able to write was seen as some sort of power to certain civilizations since not every one was able to write. For example in some ancient civilizations they had a recorder or historian, as it would be called today, that would write down the events that occurred of that time and only the recorder knew how to write. Writing changed the world; it allowed a whole new way of living. Without it we wouldn’t know what we do today about the past or our own future. I think they felt the same way. They wanted to be remembered in some way or another and writing was their way of doing it. It helped us to unlock many secrets and the language of thousands of cultures. It is the greatest invention man could have given the world. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to identify the remains of lost cultures or tombs, such as King Tut.