reflection #6 EDF 1005

The curiosity of an individual is great since trying to trace back to where writing came from is a challenge. It is hard to think of a time where no one knew how to even write his or her names. The earliest form of writing came as drawing in caves but it was then preceded by the introduction of the cuneiform created by the Sumerians. The Sumer civilization was a pioneer in agriculture also bringing about great opportunities for trade. The Cuneiform style of writing was first used to keep track of the crops, the cattle and the trading that was taking place. Simple drawings were used to represent the items. Later on this method of tracking became widely popular, resulting in the addition of more characters to the simple style they had. From then on the verbal sounds associated with the pictures then started to be used to represent the item. It is interesting to read how such necessity so commonly used has evolved over the centuries. We are taught how to use writing and how it is important for school but from what I read it gave way to other crucial developments. With the capacity to write societies now possessed the ability to record information that was previously passed down from generation to generation through the use of oral traditions. Individual of this time now had the capability to expand their cognitive abilities. It is funny to associate that the competency of writing came about because of money, since crops and cattle where also important essential for trading. The Sumerians were a civilization that contributed much to the history of human kind, they were not only innovators in agricultural techniques but thanks to trading their style of writing diffused among the existing cultures of the time like the Egyptians, Cretans, Elamites and the Indus Valley. Greatly promoting the act of recording information on clay, rocks and tokens. As said in the articles, what resulted from the incorporation of writing was not insights on knowledge since communication was very effective prior to writing, but allowed people accurately to keep records of their belongings and to put sounds in pictures to create words.