Ways of Communicating Ideas 2 3 Table of Contents

Cuneiform Family 07

Hieroglyphic Family 13

Eastern Family 23

Arabic Family 37

Indian Family 47

American Family 55

Nordic Family 61

Roman Family 69

Miscellaneous 85

4 5 Cuneiform Family

Chapter 1

Cuneiform 6 7 Tablet consisting of partial print of the ancient Sumerian Legend of Etana. (1900-1600 Sumerian BC)

About 3000 B.C the Sumerians invented a system of writing called Cuneiform. Cuneiform (from the Latin word meaning “wedged- shaped”) was developed from pictographs which later developed into ideographs that conveyed abstracted ideas. The sumerians wrote for left to right and from top to bottom. Cuneiform contains 560 characters which made up the general and only script used.

Cuneiform 8 9 Cylinder Seals

The seals were first used in Mesopotamia, late 4th century B.C. and spread to Babylonia, Egypt, and western Asia. The seals originally used pictographs, but eventually incorporated letter forms. The original seals were made of shell or lapis lazuli and later Hematite. What was carved into the seals also changed over time. The first were covered with images of how the society was developing (chariots were used). Later on, the images changed to myths and dieties.

Text from the Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley

Cylinder seals were small (2 to 6cm) cylinder-shaped stones carved with decorative designs. They were used as a way for individuals to “sign” their names. The cylinder would simply be rolled over the clay, leaving a raised image behind. The seals were mainly used by royalty and officials as a way to sign documents, such as letter, deeds and records. They were also used on ceramics and bricks as a way for the Cuneiform makers to distinguish their work from others. 10 11 Hieroglyphic Family

Chapter 2

Hieroglyphic 12 13 Text from the Ethnic Studies Library, University of Aztec Alphabet California, Berkeley

The “Aztec” writing system is the most highly pictographic of all “transitional” scripts. Practically all the symbols are crude pictures. There are numerous instances of pure ideographic writing. As a result, the script is more in the nature of mnemonic aid that is to be supplemented by an oral description rather than of true writing. In some respects, the writing might already be considered as “traditional”. Abstract ideas are represented by signs borrowed from homonyms.

The Aztec writing system was used in the valley of Mexico and Cotzumalhuada on the Pacific slope of Guatemala. It is a writing system that comes from the hieroglyphic family.

Hieroglyphic 14 15 Hieroglyphs, characters in any system of writing in which symbols Egypt represent object (such as told, animals, or boats) and ideas (such as motion, time , and jot). The ancient Greeks first used the term Hieroglyph (meaning “sacred Carving”) to describe decorative characters carved on Egyptian monuments. the therm is mainly used to refer to the system of writing used by the ancient Egyptians.

The name of Rosetta refers to the crucial breakthrough in the research regarding Egyptian hieroglyphs. It represents the translation of “silent” symbols into a living a language. It is necessary in order to make the whole content of information of these symbols accessible.

Image from Heiroglphs Without Mystery, An Introduction to Egyption Hieroglyphic Writing by Karl-Theodor 16 17 Zauzich. The name Rosetta is attached to the stone of Rosetta. This is a compact basalt slab (114 x 72 x 28cm) that was found in the small Egyptian village Rosette (Raschid), which is located in the western delta of the Nile. Today the stone is kept at the British Museum in London. It contains three Inscriptions that represent a single text in three different variants of script, a decree of the priests of Memphis on honor of Ptolemaios. V. (196 b.c.).

The text appears in form of hieroglyphs (script of the official and religious texts), of Demotic (everyday Egyptian script), and in Greek. The representation of a single text of the three mentioned script variants enabled the French scholar Jean Francois Champollion in 1822 to basically decipher the hieroglyphs. With the aid of the Coptic Language (language of the Christian descendants of the ancient Egyptians), he succeeded to realize the phonetic value of the hieroglyphs. this proved the fact that hieroglyphs do not have only symbolic meaning, but that they also served as a ”spoken language”.

Spread from Introducing Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Papyrus was the most important writing material in the ancient world. Barbara Watterson. Our word “paper” derives form the word papyrus, an Egyptian word that originally meant “that which belongs to the house” (the bureaucracy of ancient Egypt). Papyrus is a triangular reed that grew along the banks of the Nile, and at an early stage of their history the Egyptians developed a kind of writing material made out of the pith within the stem of the papyrus plant. At the same time they developed a script that ultimately provided the model for the Symbols meaning star in Hieroglyphic Egyptian Hieroglyphs. two most common alphabets in the world, the Roman and Arabic. 18 19 Hieractic

Hieroglyphic is the term used to describe the sacred characters of the ancient Egyptian language in its classical phase. There are also similar pictographic styles to Egyptian in Crete, Asian Minor, Central Edwin Smith papyrus in America, and Mexico. Egyptian Hieratic Script is one of the oldest surgicall documents in record.

Hieroglyphics are conventionalized images used mainly to represent arbitrary and seldom obvious meanings. There are 604 basic symbols in Egyptian hieroglyphic, that are read in several directions, including top to bottom, but usually right to left with the pictures facing the beginning of the line. The three possible uses for Hieroglyphics are as ideograms, phonograms, and as determinatives or unpronounced symbols after a picture to classifying meaning. As Hieroglyphics progressed, most words required determinatives.

Egyptian hieroglyphic appeared in several stages, starting with the 1st Dynasty, (3110–2824 B.C.) when it was perfected. Hen the Old Kingdom when it started to go out of use and to the New Empire where the hieroglyphics (from 500 B.C. on) were only understood by scholars.

Hieroglyphic 20 21 Eastern Family

Chapter 3

Eastern 22 23 Chinese

Written Chinese has no alphabet. Instead, it consists of about 50,000 characters. A person who knows about 4,000 of the most frequently used characters can read a Chinese newspaper of modern novel. Scholars who read ancient Chinese literature and documents must learn many more characters.

The earliest known examples of Chinese are inscriptions carved in bones and shells during the Shang Dynasty. These early forms of Chinese were pictograms. The characters, also called graphs were pictograms. The characters, also called graphs were drawing or pictures of the objects they represented. As Chinese script developed, characters became more simplified and less pictographic. Chinese chacters that say North (left) and South (right). Some characters are not pictures but represent abstract words. Examples include the characters for up and down. Such characters, called simple graphs, are few in number. Compound graphs, however, are more numerous. Compound graphs are formed by two or more characters. For example, the character meaning to bark is a compound graph formed by the characters for mouth and dog. Text from the Ethnic Studies Eastern Library, University of 24 California, Berkeley 25 Korean

Koreans learned to write from the Chinese and used wenyan as the written language for many centuries before they began writing their own language. Korean, however, differs drastically from Chinese, and therefore the adaptation of Chinese characters was difficult. In 1446 King Sejong declared that the Chinese writing system was ill suited for the Korean language. He is credited with providing the most remarkable writing system ever invented.

This system is a unique alphabet called Hangul. The system consists of twenty-eight basic signs, twenty-four of which are in use today. Each of these twenty-four letters represents a single consonant or vowel. Korean differs from most other languages in that the letters of each syllable are grouped together into clusters. Korean can be written from left to right or top to bottom.

Photonegative strip of Korean Eastern characters from the Oakland 26 27 Museum of California. Even with the invention of Hangul, Koreans continue to use Chinese both in the form of the written language wenyan and in their new script. In Hangul texts Chinese loan words are written with Chinese characters to be read in Sino-Korean. Since Chinese loan words from a substantial part of the Korean vocabulary, Korean texts are often Another photonegative strip interspersed with Chinese characters. Still, Native Korean words of Korean characters from the Oakland Museum of are usually written with Hangul. North Korea abolished the use of California. Chinese characters after the division of the country, but they continue to be used in South Korea.

The verse reads: “The Five Mountains are steep and angled and the Yellow River flows with mighty force. Yet history waves at the bases of the Six Classics”. It is interpreted as signifying that the calligrapher cannot obtain a mature style by merely learning technique, but must also master the Six Classics.

Eastern 28 29 Japanese

Painting by Katsushika Hokusai from the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Today, the two kana systems, called syllabaries, and about two- thousand Chinese characters are used in writing Japanese. The hiragana syllabary is used most often. It is a set of rounded characters derived from cursive Chinese characters. The more angular katakana syllabary is derived from parts of Chinese characters. Katakana is used to write words and other language elements in the equivalent elements of another alphabet. Katakana is also used to make a word stand out in text, much like italics are used in English.

There are forty-seven different kana script signs.Theoretically, Japanese could be written entirely in kana syllables. However, Chinese is considered to be too prestigious a form of communication to eliminate it entirely. By the end of the Heian period a mixed Chinese/Japanese script known as kana-majiri developed, which uses both Japanese kana and Chinese characters. This is still in use today.

The Japanese borrowed the Chinese system of writing as well as many Chinese words. In order to express the complex Japanese grammatical endings, some Chinese characters were used as phonetic symbols without any meaning attached. These were later simplified into two systems of phonetic symbols called kana, which represent the sounds of the Japanese syllables.

Japanese characters on Mulberry paper from the Edo period 1780-1830. Image from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Eastern 30 Design Museum. 31 Thai

Historically written Thai can be traced back to Southern Indian writing systems of the Grantha type, but the proximate source was a form of old Khmer script. According to the traditional account, in 1823 King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai, in what was now north central Thailand, adapted this script to a language of the Thai type. He is credited with the innovation of tone marks- arguably the first time that phonetic tone was regularly indicated in a writing system intended for com- mon use.

The Sukhothai writing system underwent shifting and proliferation. In addition, according to most authorities, a set of important sound changes occurred in the spoken precursors of modern Thai over the next few centuries.

Panha nai kanan rupsara nai phasa Thai by Nanthana Ranakiat from UW Libraries’ Eastern 32 Southeast Asia Section 33 Spoken Thai is grammatically simple in comparison with European languages. Each word is complete in itself There are no prefixes or suffixes, no gender for nouns, no articles, no plurals and no verb conjugations of any kind. There are also no set rules making Thai words belong to a particular part of speech. Instead, a word can be used as a noun, verb adjective, or adverb, depending upon its position in the sentence.

The modern Thai alphabet has forty-four consonants, thirty-two vowels, and four tone marks. The writing system is phonetic, and is written from left to right There is no regular word spacing, instead spaces are used to indicate sentences or phrasal units. European style paragraphing is used along with quotation marks, parenthesis, and occasionally other punctuation marks.

Characters from the Thai alphabet

Eastern 34 35 Arabic Family

Chapter 4

Arabic 36 37 Arabic

Like Hebrew, Arabic was derived from the Phoenician alphabet. The connection between the Arabs and the Phoenicians to this day remains a mystery. Around the time of Christ, the people from Northern Arabia, the Nabateans, were using a non-Arabic non- Phoenecian script. The first Arabic incriptions are dated at 512-3 A.D.

In 622 A.D. Mohommed the prophet of Islam fled to from Mecca, taking refuge in Medina. This date marks the beginning of the Muslim Era. The first scripts of the Muslim Holy book, the Koran, were dictated to Mohammed by Allah and then transcribed to Arabic in 650 A.D. The language spread as Islam expanded across the world. The script became more known than the spoken language, spreading to North Africa and parts of Asia.

Arabic is written from right to left and vowels are not necessarily transcribed. Consisting of eighteen letters and when including various marks and accents, it has twenty-nine total, the letters are combined in cursive. A major quality of Arabic is the ability to make Arabic text from Fouad various forms, making calligraphy a decorative element in mosques Hussein’s Arabic Language book Al-Zarqawi: The Second and on other monuments. Generation of Al Qaeda (2005). Arabic 38 39 Modern Amharic

God Most High (El Elyon) in the Hebrew text of Genesis God Most High (El Elyon) in 14:20. the Hebrew text of Genesis 14:20. High Hebrew Writing System The contemporary alphabet of Ethiopia is called Amharic. This alphabet came into being when a family named Amhara took the throne in 1300 A.D.

Amharic is a phonetic alphabet that consists over two hundred High Hebrew is a phonic writing system dating back to as early as syllabic characters. There are twenty-six continental symbols and the ninth century B.C. Around the fourth century B.C. it was changed a vowel is made by creating small lines, curves, or circles on the to the “square” characters which was used in biblical manuscripts, character, which adds a great number of variations to the alphabet. It important texts, and most printed books. was read from right to left before Christianity, but switched during the third and fourth centuries. Closely related to the Phoenician, Moabit, and Edomite dilaects, Hebrew is a Semitic language which was prevalent in lands extending The languages of Ethiopia were derived from the people of Yemen, from northern Syria to the Arabian Desert. who migrated through the country. Amharic is related to other Semitic alphabets, such as Israelite and South Arabian script, though Like other Semetic languages, High Hebrew has no vowel signs. The Amharic is south sematic. alphabet contains twenty-two letters and is read from left to right. Arabic 40 41 God Most High (El Elyon) in the Hebrew text of Genesis New Hebrew 14:20.

Hebrew is a language which dates back to the 12th century B.C. and it is still used today. It belongs to the Arabic family of languages, which was once prevalent from northern Syria to the Arabian Desert. Today, it is employed by the nation of Israel and is the language of the sacred writings of the Jewish.

Belonging to the phonetic category of language systems, Hebrew’s linguistic development can be divided into two phases, early or classical Hebrew and new or postbiblical Hebrew. New Hebrew emerged in the third century B.C. and is distinguished by its square alphabet, the parent of modern Hebrew script. The essential characteristics of the Hebrew language remain the same as in biblical times. Arabic 42 43 Fragments of Islamic text.

Islamic

Islamic ornamentation Islam spread rapidly after its founding, encompassing much of Much of Islamic art can be seen as interplay between pure patterns. Africa, Europe, and Asia. The art of this vast region draws its abstraction and organic form. For Muslims, abstraction helps free distinctive character both from Islam itself and from the diverse the mind from the contemplation of material form, opening it to the cultural traditions of the world’s Muslims. Because Islam discour- enormity of the divine presence. Islamic artists excelled in surface aged the use of figurative images, particularly in religious contexts - decoration, using repeated and expanding patterns to suggest unlike Christians art of the same period - Islamic artists developed a timelessness and infinite extension. Shimming surfaces created by rich vocabulary of aniconic, or no figural, ornament that is a hallmark dense, highly controlled patterning are characteristic of much later of Islamic work. This vocabulary includes complex geometric patterns Islamic art, including architecture, carpet making , calligraphy, and and the scrolling vines known outside the Islamic world book illustration. as arabesques.

Arabic 44 45 Indian Family

Chapter 5

Indian 46 47 Scene from The Rasikapriya, written by Keshav Das, a India celbrated Indian poet.

Hindi is the principal regional language of northern India and one of India’s official languages. Its literature was developed in consisted chiefly of poetry.

Hindi is the language spoken by more than two out of every five people in India. Over 165 million people claim Hindi as their native language. It is widely spoken, especially in the Haryana state where it began and spread to the rest of northern India.

Formal Hindi is written in the Devanagari(Snaskirt) script and tends to use Sanskirt derived words to express learned, literay, or technical concepts.

Ideographic and phonetic: 1200’s to present day Northern India Written from left or right 49 characters in the alphabet

Characters of the Hindi Indian 48 alphabet 49 Commentary for the Hindu by muslim poet Ambar Hussain. Tamil

The Tamil communication system is one of the oldest of India, with literature dating back to the early centuries A.D. It is employed primarily in southern India, ranging from Cape Camorin to Madras.

Tamil is a phonetic language based on a complex system of euphonic combinations. The alphabet consists of twenty eight characters of ten vowels and eighteen consonants. However, due to a lack of enough characters, several letters have the same pronounciation. In order to distinguish the various ways of pronouncing the letters, four kinds of dots, lines, or other signs are used to represent palatal, guttural, or other sounds. For example, a dot appearing under a letter represents a nasal sound before a consonant.

Tamil inscription in stone estimated to be approximately from the last centuries before the era of Christianity.

Marathi

Marathi is one of the modern Indo-Aryan dialects derived from the ancient classical language, Sanskrit. The earliest documented evidence of the use of Marathi is a poem written in 1290. The language uses a phonetic linguistic system. Symbols for the 36 consonants and 12 vowels are placed in various combinations to vary the sound each symbol represents. The symbol would be pronounced differently if it were placed at the beginning of a word than if it were placed at the end. The people of the central western region of India Indian 50 use this Middle Indian dialect today. 51 Tibetan Script

According to Tibetan tradition, a minister named Thon-mi Sambhota was sent,c. AD 640, to study Sanskrit in Kashmir. On returning, he devised a syllabary that is the Tibetan language of today.

Throughout the centuries, Tibetan writing has virtually remained unchanged. This may be attributed to the influence of Buddhism on Tibetan culture, for once Buddhism achieved religious supremacy, the written language, as a medium of transmission for the Buddhist teachings, acquired a sacral character; consequently its form and A prayer flag in appreciation orthography were left unchanged out of reverence. of the Tibetan Buddhist.

Tibetan prayer flag with an image of the wind horse from the British Museum collection.

Since the spoken language continued to evolve phonologically, there developed a great disparity between Tibetan orthography and pronounciation. This highly stylized writing is composed of thirty consonants and four vowel signs, with additional sets of honorary words for superiors and ordinary words for inferiors of reference to self.

Tibetan is a member of the Indian family, used mostly in Tibet and parts of India and China, but is read left to right like Sanskrit and English. Indian 52 53 American Family

Chapter 6

American 54 55 Navajo Indians Eskimo

Sandpainting developed in the Northwestern New Mexico and Northeastern Arizona. Navajos adopted the pictographic art of sandpainting from Hopis and Pueblo people. The materials that were used were generally all sorts of vegetables such as colored corn meal, plant pollens, grinned flower petals and charcoal which were worked upon a sheet of white cloth or buckskin. The symbols used came

mostly from myths of supernatural beings in the form of human. Highly prized, decorated hunting hat with ivory carvings, beads, and whiskers After the sandpainting were used, a lot of them were destroyed. of sea lion preserved in the Smithsonian Institute. Therefore it is unknown to us how many symbols and designs the Navajos used in their sandpaintings. Ivory plays an important part in the life and language of Eskimos. Art forms were carved out from them and pictographs were inscribed upon them.

Unlike a typical carver who would carve their desired shape from ivory, Eskimos pretend they are the block of ivory and carves away the excess to release the soul. They believe that the piece of art was always there, just hidden inside the block and can not be forced into another shape by the carver. In the Eskimo language, the words “create” or “make” do not exist. The closest phrase that resembles it is “to work on”. This relates back to the belief that no art can be forced. All materials have its own spirit and acts on its own. Engravings on ivory that illustrates life of Eskimos developed 200 years ago near the Bering Strait. Before the 19th century, the Eskimo recorded everything by pictographs. They have a tendency to carve in a line on flat surfaces. It wasn’t until 1834 when Timothy Evens developed a syllabic writing system consisting of forty-eight characters for the Cree Indian language. The Eskimos obtained the system from Anglican Missionaries. Nowadays, it is used only Illustration of a Navajo shamanistic healing ceremony in Eastern and Central Arctic and few people other than Eskimos American about mythical hero Dsilyídje understand this writing system. 56 Qaçàl. 57 In North America, a truly written language developed only in Mexico. However, many Indian groups were able to communicate a rich American Indians unwritten traditions of poetry, oratory and drama. Even those Indians who did not produce a written traditions of poetry, oratory and drama. Even those Indians who did not produce a written literature, as did the Aztec and Maya of Mexico, used several kinds of notation and memory devices such as pictographic designs.

Narragansett Indians living in Providence, Rhode Island, Kent and The Narragansett Indians had neither clothes, books, nor letters. They Washington Counties during the 17th through 19th centuries spoke did not have any historical inscriptions or memorials. Their nearest an Eastern Algonquian language. Their language was extensively approach to American art or alphabets were in the paintings on deer studied by Roger Williams and presented in his book, A Key Into The skin, or on their faces. The paintings were diverse emblems and with Language of America.The Narragansett community’s dialect has been significant colors, in which their vanity found gratification. extinct since the early 19th century. Painting of engraved rocks of symbols considered to be from the Anasazi now part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Native American Petroglyphs found and photographed in Utah.

American 58 59 Nordic Family

Chapter 7

Nordic 60 61 Vellum manuscript from 1300s consisting of one of the oldest pieces of writing still in Nordic existence written in runes.

The Runic alphabet had its beginnings in Denmark and Norway c. 200 AD. There is a good reason to believe futhark (called futhark from the first six characters of the 24 symbol series) arose in Danish territory and then moved north into Norway and Sweden, south and east into Germany, and eventually across the waters into England. There it lost out to the Latin alphabet. In Scandinavia it was simplified and remained with those peoples through early times.

The current theory is that the oldest runic alphabet stems from a North Italic alphabet, introduced to the Germanic areas as early as 1 or 2 BC through Macromanni tribes. Others suggest strong Greek and Latin Influences. Inscriptions preserved from early periods are carved or scratched into strong materials–bone, metal and stone, but the original and most common use was for carving wood. Straight strokes and sharp angles of the characters demonstrate the avoidance of horizontal and curved lines, and suggests adaptation to wood grain. Letters had meaningful acronymic names (e.g. ‘fehu’ = cattle for f) and were also used ideographically to represent the words they began, often in service of magic. The inscriptions were usually read from right to left.

Nordic 62 63 This page from the Book of Kells is designed in the style of the Celtic illuminated manuscripts.

The Celtic Writing System

The Celtic writing system was in Ireland between the sixth and ninth centuries. It arose from the artists desire to integrate decoration into illuminated manuscripts.

The beauty derives from the colors and intricacy in each design. The Phonetic system, read left to right, incorporates large decorative initials that contrast the other characters which are similar. There are twenty-six characters in this system.

Ogham is a Celtic alphabet of phonetic characters consisting of fifteen consonants, five vowels and several diphthongs and double letter symbols. The letters are made with single parallel strokes in sets of one to five, in positions above, across, or below a center guide line. Ogham is read left to right, but can be written horizontally, upward, downwards, or in a circle. The system of straight marks was probably used as a finger language as well. The term Ogham is thought to have come either from the Greek work ogme, meaning groove, or from the Celtic god Ogmios. Their examples in papers and manuscripts, but Ogham is found almost exclusively inscribed on rock markers and megaliths.

Nordic 64 65 Ogham is the alphabet of the Goidels or Q-Celts that first settled in England and Wales. The other general division of the Celtic Tribe, the P-Celts, wrote in Greek and Latin. The Q-Celt Ogham inscriptions remained after the P-Celts, or Guals, invaded from France to become the modern Welsh and Cornish races.

The Ogham alphabet was used by the Q-Celts in Britain from around the first century A.D. to the fifth. Ogham, however has only recently been deciphered, and with its decipherment has come a means of linking together many archeological loose ends in other

parts of the world. Based upon Goidelic legend and similarities More decorative text from the in word forms, it is possible that the Goidels came originally from Book of Kells. the Iberian Peninsula, meaning Portugal and Spain. Once Ogham was discovered, it was found that there were, in fact, examples of the alphabet on the Iberian Peninsula. Vowels are omitted and the language is Phoenician rather than Goidelic, but this pushes the date of the first use of Ogham back to around eight-hundred B.C., toward the end of the Iberian Bronze age. This also means that through the discovery of Ogham the presumed history of the Celtic tribes has been altered. There is also extensive evidence which links Ogham and the Christ depiected in and illustration from the Book megalithic architecture of Goidels to North America, Hundreds if of Kells. narjung on this continent, which were once unexplained, and now be read as Ogham. This, along with the presence of temple structure and megaliths of the same design as the Celtic ones found in Europe, makes a strong case for the existence of pre-Columbian Goedlic settlements in North America. implied here is the possibility of a well developed, and intercontinental system of trade and communication among the Celts and the Phoenicians. Although this is still just a theory, one can clearly see the drastic revisions to our presumed world history that could be caused by the decipherment of Ogham and equivalent discoveries.

Nordic 66 67 Roman Family

Chapter 8

Roman 68 69 Characters of the Phoenician Phoenicia alphabet.

Time: c. 1700-63 BC maritime trading people.The oldest known text in West Semitic writing is the ‘Ahiram epitaph’, an inscription on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram. The language of this document is Phoenician. The phoenician scripts is of great significance because it is the parent script of all Western alphabets.

The Phoenician alphabet is a consonantal alphabet which served as a basis for all western Semitic languages. The symbols in the alphabet are simplifications of the Egyptian hieroglyphs Babylonian cunei- form writing.

When the ancient town of Ugarit was excavated, the first alphabet in the world was found on a clay tablet. It dates from 1400 BC and consists of 22 letters, or, to be more specific, consonants. It is probable that the vowels were known, however the consonants are consequently syllables from which the vowels have been omitted.

A Phoenician stele with alphabetical inscriptions from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Roman 70 71 Greek

Around the year 1000 BC, the Greeks began to adopt the Phoenician alphabet as a form to preserve knowledge and history. The Greeks took Phoenician names and changed them into the Greek alphabet.

For example: Aleph --- alpha Beth --- beta

The Phoenician alphabet itself had no vowels, only consonants. But when the Greeks adopted their alphabet, they added 5 vowels, completing their alphabet. In the year 403 BC, the revised alphabet was officially adopted by Athens as the Greek alphabet.

Early Greek had 10 alphabets, all slightly varying, but the letters themselves kept the same order. When writing the Greek alphabet as in a paragraph, they used a system called boustrophedon, or ox like turn. This meant that the reader would read the text from right to left, then left to right, then right to left, etc, just like how an ox turns in fields.

As a result of this turn, the letters had to be reversed for

easier reading. Characters from the Greek First volume of 10th century Alphabet. Greek Bible from the University of Oxford. K = K B = B

Roman 72 73 Roman

The Etruscan Civilization dominated Northern and Central Italy during the sixth and seventh centuries BCE. Descendants of the Villanovans; the people of the Bronze Age, the Etruscans were known for their metalwork and trade. The Etruscans primarily traded with the Greek and the Phoenicians. Such trade allowed for an exchange of culture as well. There is notable Greek influence in the Etruscan Alphabet.

By the end of the first millennium BCE the Romans had curtailed the existence of the Etruscan society through the unification of Italy. However, the Etruscan alphabet did not cease to exist. The Romans decided to develop the alphabet further.

The Romans took the Etruscan alphabet and gave it a more classic form which was suited to be engraved in stone and was later adopted all over the world. Just as the Etruscans used their alphabet for engraving so did the Romans. The alphabet retained its character when engraved in stone. Such legibility made epigraphic writing used primarily for decrees, laws, dedications and governmental information. The monumental character of Roman epigraphic writing was known as “capitals monumentalis.”

2013 replica of a Roman Vatican manuscript.

The Roman epigraphic writings if painted onto a wall with a brush lost their static character and became more elegant, dynamic, and malleable. During the first centuries of the Christian era the more rapid type of writing used by merchants, officials and educated Romans along with a free interpretation of existing styles led to new patterns of writing. Roman majuscule writing was transformed into Roman 74 the first Roman cursive. 75 Russian

Characters of the Russian Alphabet.

Spread from the Russian In the Modern Russian alphabet, there is a remodeling and Laurentian Codex. simplification of the Cyrillic script, which originated in the late ninth century in Bulgaria. This alphabet is still the prevailing one today. However, there have been a series of revisions that began in the late seventeenth century during the reign of Peter the Great.

The system is phonetic and is used in the countries that inhabit the former Soviet Republic.

Roman 76 77 Old Latin Codex containing Latin parts of Matthew and Mark.

EUROPE

Time: End of the 4th to 15th century AD.

Technology: Printing, woodcut, paper manufacture, brassware industry, brass founding, gunpowder, silver mining, tapestry, embroidery, leather work and gold work, die-cutting, minting, copper mining, amber winning, iron industry, glass manufacture, beer brewing, salt production, cloth industry, cotton processing, silk and fancy weaving, peat cutting, bridge and canal construction, stone castles, cathedrals.

Education: When the West became christianized, the church took over education, mainly in it’s monastery schools, which became centers of cultural and intellectual activity. It was there that kings and princes went to find their chancellors, clerks and notaries. The people, however, remained illiterate. 600 AD Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge. In 814 the Arabs adopted Indian numerals (including the zero and the place value system) which in the 12th century became known as Arabic numerals. Education received a great impetus from Chalemagne (742-812). At his court and in each episcopal see he founded academies and school where tuition was given by scholars from Ireland, England, Italy, and Spain. Works of the Ancient World and Early Christianity were copied, and the In the 11th century, chancelleries began to use formularies containing Carolingian copyists modified the style of existing scripts to produce modules of prescribed deeds and letters. Rhymed bibles, bible Carolingian miniscule, a clear and legible form. This firmly establish stories in rhyme, were in widespread use; troubadours in France took the use of Latin small letters. the legends that handed down by the monasteries and rewrote them as heroic epics; the “archetype” of the picture book came into being. C.1000 the school of Reichenau was widely renowned for the high art of its book illumination, which was remarkable for its vivid depictions Roman 78 in flat areas of strong color. Arts and crafts flourished in Abbey of St. 79 Emmeram in Regensburg. The Printing Press

1250: Gothic script, the basis of modern black letter gained acceptance.

1403: Printing with movable type in Korea.

1426: One of the earliest travel guides by Joh. Bassenheimer was published.

1461: The oldest typeset book in German language came on the book market.

1460: Use of Roman type in Italy.

1454: Gutenberg letters of indulgence.

1455: Publication of the 42-line Gutenberg Bible.

1469: Venice became the most important center of printing and the book trade.

Commerce: The decline of the Western Roman

Spread of first Bible printed off the Gutenberg press.

Roman 80 81 In the 12th century, guilds were formed in many European countries Substrates: as a protection against competitors but also to maintain standards of Paper, papyrus, parchment, stone, glass, fabric. Papal chancelleries quality. During certain periods, individual advertising for customers were using papyrus until the 11th century. was considered to be unfair competition and forbidden. At this time, it was realized that an attractive display was an inducement to buy In the 17th century, paper reached the Near East as an article of goods and the art of presentation was deliberately cultivated. commerce; in the 8th century, the Arbs took it to Spain, where local production began as early as 200 years later; Germany, France, During the 15th century, trade and commerce improved, new centers England, Holland, Sweden and Russia soon followed suit; and Italy grew up, and large companies were incorporated. Monograms, craft in the 13th century. Paper, which was considerable cheaper than and guild signs, emblems and coats of arms made their appearance parchment and papyrus, gave added impetus to the whole printing and were the force runners of firm insignia. Well-known artists often trade. The Italians invented watermark. Only a few copies were made designed the signboard for shops and inns. Craft workers had to work of handwritten and hand-illuminated medieval books; they were by the open window in full view of fellow citizens and competitors. often so expensive that only kings and princes could afford such This placed a premium on quality and left the craftsman no alternative rarities. The book of codex: sewn and folded sheets at first gained but to conduct his business on sound lines. At the time, it was good acceptance only in the early Christian communities. To read the publicity: in such direct contact with customers the owner tried to codex, one did not unroll it like the papyrus scroll, but turn the pages: show his goods in the best light. it was the forerunner of our books today. Marks origin and firm signs are a heritage from Roman times, as are picture signboards and Display figured as importantly in medieval advertising as it does badges. Also Roman in origin is the poster, the message painted on today. Its purpose had always been to diminish the distance between panel which would be re-used, and the placard, which was painted by vendor and purchaser by the visual effect of the goods. Displays, like professional letterers. the shop window, were a development of the movable market stall. The copying of manuscripts became a new trade, catalogues of In the age of Gothic architecture, when the “Bauhutte” or guild of goods were published, and books were sold by traveling salesmen. building workers flourished, stone maison’s marks were in common Papyrus and parchment remained the main writing materials until the use. No one was allowed to use any sign other than that assigned to 13th century . him by “Bauhutte”. The first maison’s sign is said to date from 1089; after 1150 they were widely used. They went out of use again in the The signature on letters took the form of a seal; besides personally early 18th century when the “Bauhutten” were dissolved. canvassing their customers merchants also made use of “direct mail.”

1471: Creation of the ex libris or bookplate.

Roman 82 83 Miscellaneous

Chapter 9

Miscellaneous 84 85 Sharaknots (Hymnal), a richly decorated book of Armenian Armenian Alphabet chants now located in National Library of Russia.

The Armenian language is the only survivor of the Thracian branch of Indo European languages. Turkish Armenians and the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic are two groups that still use this language today. The Armenian language was developed well before the 6th century BC; but some of the writings that were found with this alphabet have been dated to the 5th century AD.

The Armenian alphabet is still very much the same alphabet since its birth. It has had hardly any changes over the years.

When the alphabet was first being used, it consisted of 36 letters, and now has about 38 letterforms. Many would say that the Armenian alphabet is a stem off of the Greek alphabet, where they seem to have been influenced.

Similarities to both: the way the text is read, from left right and the vowel sounds are similar too.

Miscellaneous 86 87 Hobo Signs Prehistoric Art

Hobo signs were developed in the 1800s as a simple way to communicate. These images creating these signs were taken from Hobo people’s everyday life and culture. It became a form of pictographic writing because many Hobo people were illiterate and therefore signs would be easier to recognize. Each of the individual signs holds a different meaning and symbolizes a different aspect of the Hobo’s life styles. A group of signs together are read from left to right and can speak for a whole community.

Cave paintings from Lascaux

In the early paleolithic 35,000 B.C. to Neolithic c.4000 B.C., the Cro-Magnon man was a hunter. Cave paintings, such as the ones shown here, are almost exclusively of animals and were power over the animal itself and would be successful in the chase. Art, then was dictated by the practical life.

Cave paintings in Southern France (e.g. Lascaux, Pech Merle) and Hobo Sign meaning keep Northern Spain (Altamira, Castillo) date 20,000 to 10,000 B.C. but Hobo Sign meaning railroad. away. have influenced many modern artist such as Pablo Picasso (e.g. Picasso’s drawing Le Taureau, 1945-46).

Miscellaneous 88 89 90 91 Image Resources

Digital Public Library of America

Library of Congress Images

Smithsonian Institution

Fleet Library

Wikimedia Commons

92 93 94 95 Ji Soo An RISD Fall 2016, Type III Adobe Indesign, Avenir Franz Werner (text provided)

96 97 98