Interactive Ancient History

This page is a Resource page, designed to give you images from our stock and our private collection as well as resources to help you learn more about the fascinating history of the written word.

Keep checking back regularly for updates...

You will find "Questions" at the bottom of some of the sections. These are there to encourage you to go and research more information on that particular topic. To start with simply type the word into your search engine and see where it takes you. If you get stuck or would like to know more contact us.

We will be having competitions with fascinating prizes to help you learn more about the History and Development of writing. Check below for details.

Write:

Middle English from Old English word "writan" meaning to scratch, draw, inscribe....akin to Old High German "rizan" meaning to tear or the Greek "rhine" meaning to file or rasp.

To form on a surface with an instrument

To form (as words) by inscribing characters or symbols on a surface

To make a permanent impression of...

Synonyms:

Autograph, calligraphy, chirography (handwriting or penmanship), cuneiform, hand, handwriting, hieroglyphics, longhand, manuscription, print, scrawl, scribble, script, shorthand.

So what does writing include and what does it not include?

Questions to ponder:
Are the following writing?
Cave art; calligraphy; written music; lyrics; graffiti; doodling;

We will be looking at many aspects of writing on this page. Some you may agree fit the definition of writing, some you may not...

The intention is to get you to explore the many varied parts that allow us to communicate without using sound.

So go on and explore...

CLAY

 One of the first writing materials known to man was clay...a simple ball of soft, moist mud drawn from the banks of the river, that had been deposited there from the many years of seasonal floods. It was readily available, inexpensive and if fired in a kiln (or accidentally burnt in a fire/conflagration) could last forever, making it one of the most durable writing materials known to man, yet we no longer use it. Paper that we write on today can only last a short time before it begins to deteriorate. The people of ancient Mesopotamia used clay prolifically while the Egyptians used it sparingly in the early predynastic period.

Clay that had not been fired could be reused by simple re wetting the surface and writing again, whereas unfired clay would crumble eventually when left exposed to the elements.

 PAPYRUS

Papyrus is a writing medium made from the pith of the papyrus plant, that was once found in the Nile Delta of Ancient Egypt. The plant was thought extinct but has been successfully revived. It was abundant in Ancient Egypt, growing commonly to around two to three metres tall but in exceptional circumstances up to five metres. It is triangular in section and thrives in hot, wet conditions. It was used as far back as 3000BC, Egypt for many years holding a monopoly on its sale, exporting it all over the Mediterranean. Our word "Paper" comes from the word papyrus which originally meant "that which belongs to the house". The original word Papyrus comes from the Egyptian word "pa-en-per-aa" which means "that which belongs to the king." In ancient tomes different grades of papyrus was made depending on its intended use.
So how is it turned into a writing surface?
Firstly the outer green pith is carefully removed exposing the creamy moist inner pith, which is then in turn sliced into fine strips. These strips are laid out parallel to each other, slightly overlapping. A second layer is then laid at right angles to the first and then the whole is pressed either by hammering or in a press. After it has dried sufficiently it is then polished with a smooth stone. The sheets can be joined to form a scroll by aligning the sheets horizontal strips along the long axis of the scroll and either gluing or sowing the sections together. In the mid first century AD the codex replaced the scroll, by folding sheets and forming them together much like a book is formed today. Scrolls were usually only written on one side, while the codex was written on both sides. Exceptions to this did take place, and in some cases the text was erased and the scroll reused.

Check out the University of Michigan's online interactive display of papyrus making HERE.

Check out our great deals on Papyrus paintings on our Interactive Papyrus page.

PARCHMENT

Parchment is a writing medium made from either calf, sheep or goatskins. It is not tanned like leather but instead goes through a different process to make it into the fine off white surface that was so prized by scribes for thousands of years.
So how is a piece of animal hide made into a fine writing surface?
Firstly the parchment maker known through medieval times as the percamenarius, would select the best quality hides, preferably without any blemishes or holes. The hide would then be washed to clean it in preparation for the next step. It would then be soaked in a bath of lime for 3 - 10 days to soften the hide. It would then be rinsed and soaked again in lime for a short period after which it would be stretched out on a rack and scraped with a special curved knife to remove the hair and the inner skin substance and then left to dry slowly until after more scraping and stretching he would be left with a thin translucent off white surface. Some parchment makers would rub fine talc in to the surface to make it more uniform. In some cases holes would appear during the process and yet manuscripts have been found in which the scribes simply wrote around them.
The name parchment comes from the city of Pergamum where it is said the process was originally invented, hence the parchment maker being called a percamenarius.

 Legal documents are still written on parchment today, as parchment lasts much longer than paper. This is a common plea legal document from the mid 19th century.

Parchment should not be confused with leather. Leather existed as a writing material since ancient times, a leather scroll dated to 1468BC telling of Tutmosis III and his exploits at Megiddo. Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are actually leather not parchment, as was seen when the Bedouin that found the first scrolls thought them of so little value that he took them to a shoe maker in Bethlehem called Kando anticipating that they could be made into sandal straps. Lukily though, Kando recognised the scrolls for what they were and advised him otherwise!

 QUESTION: What is a "Palimpset"?

VELLUM

Vellum has similar characteristics to parchment and to the untrained eye can look identical. However it is made from calf skin  rather than sheep or goat skin and can produce a much finer quality product.. The word Vellum has the same roots as the word Veal meaning calf.

PAPER

Paper was a Chinese invention in the second century AD but for over a thousand years passed before it eventually found it way to the west and on in to Europe. Paper made from hemp was found in a Western Han tomb in the form of ancient maps.

In the 13th century paper mills sprang up in Spain, France and Germany.

 Paper made during medieval times was made from shredded rags that had been processed manually into a pulp and then gathered on a fine mesh frame, turned out onto interleaving felt layers then allowed to dry.

During this period manufacturers found that the wire mash frame sometimes showed on thinner paper. They then made insignias from the same wire and attached it to the frame so that during manufacture this wire insignia would appear on the paper when held up to the light, and so the Watermark was invented, being used to delineate individual paper manufacturers products.

Libraries served as collections of writings from many varied sources. They existed from ancient times and are a major landmark in most cities and towns across the world. Many famous libraries like the Library of Alexandria no longer exist and have developed almost mythical proportions, yet show the importance the written word has had on civilisations both past and present.

Here are some of the famous libraries of the past and the present,,,

The Libraries of Ugarit - 1200BC
In present day Syria - diplomatic and literary works, as well as the earliest privately owned libraries yet found. Some of the oldest written copies of an alphabet come from Ugarit.

Library of Ashurbanipal - 7th century BC
In ancient Nineveh now near present day Mosul in Iraq. This may be the first cataloged, systematic library in the world. Found by Austen Henry Layard.The library itself was destroyed, but due to the fire during its destruction most of the cuneiform tablets have been preserved, the fire baking the tablets that may have otherwise disintegrated over time. The tablets were stored on shelves which collapsed in the fire but left the tablets reasonably intact. Ashurbanipal became king in 669BC and sent scribes across the empire to gather every text they could find so that they could copy them and store them in two huge halls now known as the Library of Ashurbanipal. "I, Ashurbanipal, have acquired the wisdom of Nabu. I have learnt to write on tablets...I have solved the old mystery of division and multiplication, which had not been clear....I have read the elegant texts of Sumer and the obscure words of the Akkadians and decoded the inscriptions on the stone from the time before the Deluge".

See some of the tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal on our Mesopotamia page.

Library of Alexandria - 3rd century BC.
Thought to be one of the largest collections of books/texts in the world it was thought to be destroyed during Rome's attack on the city during the reign of Cleopatra. Founded most likey by Ptolemy I who employed scholars from across the known world to copy texts for his library. Most of the texts were written on Papyrus scrolls. One of the most famous being the GReek version of the Old Testament Bible known as the Septuagint, titled because of the seventy scribes that were employed to translate the Hebrew text into Greek.
See: http://www.greece.org/alexandria/library/index.htm

Library of Pergamum - 3rd century BC.
Situated in Pergamum in modern day Turkey, formed by the Attalid kings as a Hellenistic library intended to copy the process of the Library at Alexandria. It was here that parchment was invented due to the shortage of available papyrus on which to copy the texts, made of fine calfskin. Parchment comes from the name Pergamum.

Forum Libraries of Rome - reign of Caesar Augustus
Separate libraries housing Greek and Latin texts.

Villa of the Papyri - 1st century AD
Herculaneum near Pompeii, buried by the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. The only "surviving" library of ancient papyrus from the ancient world.Thought to have belonged to Julius Caesars father in Law. The upper story of the villa that has been excavated contained 1800carbonised scrolls that are now being deciphered. More scrolls may exist below this.

Caesarea Maritima - 3rd Century AD
In present day Israel, may have housed the largest ecclesiastical library of the time with more than 30,000 manuscript, being a theological school under Origen of Alexandria.

House of Wisdom Library of Academy of Gundishapur - 3rd century AD
Baghdad, established by the Sassanids from the 3rd to 6th centuries being destroyed when the empire fell in 651AD. The centre was a place of learning for medicine, philosophy, theology and science in Zoroastrian, Persian, Greek and Indian traditions. It was the most important place of medical study of the time.

Library of Constantinople - 330AD
Destroyed by the Third Crusade, thought to be the last vestige of texts of Antiquity.

Celsus Library at Ephesus -  110AD
Formed by Gaius Julius Aquila - one of the largest libraries of antiquity with 12,000 handwritten books. destroyed by fire in the 3rd century.

Bodleian Library Oxford - 1602- present
At Oxford University - one of the oldest and largest existing libraries in Europe developed from an earlier library on the site from 1320. It houses a large collection of books and manuscripts.

Library of Congress - 1800 to present
Originally a congressional library it has grown substantially due to additions due to the Copyright Acts and a development of classification systems. It is now the largest library in the world due to this classification system.
See:http://www.loc.gov/about/

Desert Library of Timbuktu -
Timbuktu a remote city in Mali on the edge of the Sahara Desert is thought to have once housed the first University in the world. It was a significant cultural, religious and merchant centre that traded with Europe, Asia and Africa. Its education of Islamic scholars became renown throughout the world. Many manuscripts still exist today from many varied topics of human endeavour.
See: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mali/mali-overview.html

 View some of the classic libraries of the world HERE

Claimed by some to be one of the earliest forms of writinng ever found. Discovered in 1961 in Bulgaria. Dated to the "Vinca Culture" c 2500BC but sunsequent Radiocarbon dating have pushed the dates back as far as 5500BC. The question lies in the accuracy of the dating methods as this would make the tablets over two millenia older than the traditional birth of writing in bothMesopotamia and Egypt.....

What do you think?

Tablet from Iraq, Late 4th millennium BC, limestone. One of the oldest accountancy documents in existence, divided into sections representing items and numerical values. The top broad impressions represent numbers.

The earliest form of writing is shown on this tablet below from Mesopotamia, with a simple image of an animal, used most likely as a token receipt to indicate the number of animals of a particular type belonging to its owner.

A clay tablet from ancient Sumeria dated sometime shortly after 2000BC with a large rounded stamp seal impression in the centre. The text surrounds the seal impression continuing down and around the tablet to part way down the other side. The seal establishes the document owner sealing it with his authority. Seals appeared long before the development of writing as a means to show ownership of an item or for its security.  See our Ancient Seal page for our range of seals.
A replica of this tablet is available on our Mesopotamian page.

Babylonian School Tablet

This type of school tablet is called a "lentil" or "bun". The convex shaped back fits naturally into the palm of a child's hand. In order to learn to write cuneiform he would need to practice....

There are four rows of signs on the front of the tablet. The head scribe inscribed signs in rows one and two and the student took the tablet and copied the text into rows three and four. This student was learning signs that were already 1000 years old, this tablet written around 1900BC was around the time that Hammurabi wrote his famous laws. The signs in row one can be pronounced "gi-gur" which basically means "reed basket" whereas the word in line two is "gi-gur-da" meaning "large reed basket". The student was obviously not only copying textual exercises only but also learning grammar as well. 

The teacher would write his text for the student to copy, the student would then do his work and check back with his teacher, who, once satisfied would simply draw his thumb across the soft clay surface erasing the exercise, then start the process again.

How similar is this to the school slates of the Victorian era? See below...

   (Detail of text)

An Assyrian Dictionary written in cuneiform from Nineveh. The words are arranged in three sets of double columns, the left hand column of each set contains a rare Assyrian or foreign word for furnishings. The word "door" appears in the centre. The right hand column of each set contains the equivalent Assyrian common use word. The left hand column ends with the colophon of the royal library of Nineveh. It dates from the 7th century BC.

The text would be written in the left column first working down the column then working across the columns from left to right. Then once the front side is complete the scribe would turn the tablet vertically+"bottom up" and start writing on the other side in the right hand column working across to the left.

Question: What is a colophon?

This clay tablet exhibits a sky map above Mesopotamia in 3300BC. It is a "planisphere" found in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh of 650BC. It consists of segments mapping sections of the sky in cuneiform text. The Sumerians of the time were very sophisticated scholars, shown in that it took modern computer analysis to discover the true date of the star chart. 

Assyrian "Astrolabe" fragment also found in the remains of the Royal library of Ashurbanipal. 

See our Mesopotamian page for more details!

Cuneiform documents would often be sealed in a second layer of clay onto which the inner document text was rewritten. On receipt of the document the clay outer envelope could be broken away and the inner text checked if there was any suspicion of tampering. This tablet still has its outer envelope with seals still fully intact.
This tablet dated to 650BC has two seal impressions on the back placed there by the owner. The original was excavated in Nimrud by archaeologist Max Mallowan and his wife Agatha Christie.

QUESTION: What was the famous statement about marriage made by Agatha Christie after she married archaeologist Max Mallowan?

We have a replica Babylonian cuneiform tablet and its separate partial envelope for sale on our Mesopotamian page.

 Indus Valley Seals - interpreting text...

This seal displays the mythical unicorn symbol which was created during the Harappan period in the Indus Valley c2000BC, an image that was common on Indus Valley seals during the period.Above the image is a line of text that identifies the owner along with the image. These seals were of similar design with various animal and god motifs, but almost every one had the row of text across the top in varying configuration. These seals would have been used by powerful officials, merchants with examples being found throughout the area and into Mesopotamia.

The text itself is not yet fully understood, as no parallels or bilingual documents exist. It can be noted that due to the profuse number of seals with texts a total of more than 400 characters have been noted, so the text is not alphabetic, but most likely logo phonetic, with signs for meanings and for phonetic values. There seems to be a clear numeric system with numbers 1-7 being recognizable but numbers 8-10 are not. Whether the number system was an 8 bese system or the usual 10 based system is yet to be understood. 

QUESTION: Where is the Indus Valley?

Detail of an early Dynastic Cylinder seal from Egypt

Detail of text on an Akkadian Cylinder Seal - mentioning Inanna the fertility goddess.

Detail on a Kassite Cylinder Seal...

Seals appeared in Mesopotamia well before writing began in the late fourth millennium BC.
Traders saw the importance of both identifying their shipments as well as authorising them in an attempt to somehow ensure that they would reach their destination without tampering.
Early seals were merely decorated with geometric patterns in order to delineate them from the seals of other merchants but in time the use of cuneiform text on these tiny scrolls would definitely identify their owners.
The Kassite seal above shows many lines of text extolling the virtues of the local deity, yet other simpler seals such as that of Queen Puabi of ancient UR would merely have her name written on the seal alongside the banqueting scene that was common for the early seals from UR.

See our Ancient Seals page for a huge range of replica seals for sale.

In 1908 an unusual disc covered in stamped pictographic images was found in the town of Phaistos in southern Crete. It is dated to c1700BC and has been thought to have some relationship to Minoan Hieroglyphic text or the Linear A script though neither is conclusive. The images were made using a series of stamps which were impressed into the discs clay surface before it was baked. The signs most likely start at the rim at the dotted line with the image that looks like a head with a crest, spiraling right to left (clockwise) into the centre. There are 45 different signs on two sides, grouped into boxes, some with an oblique mark at the last sign that may be a diacritical mark perhaps indicating the finished sign of the word does not need an end vowel attached to a consonant. It is thought it may originally be from outside the Minoan area as some of the signs have no resemblance to anything within Minoan society. (The crested helmet, the woman sign with a non Minoan style dress). The use of 45 plus stamps make it a little like an early typewriter though the creation of such stamps to make this text indicate that the intention was to create a great number of documents from them though no other example of this text has ever been found. Many wild translations have been made as to its translation, but until some more examples are found in context this will always just remain speculation.

A reproduction of the Phaistos disc is available on our Greek page.

QUESTION: How many civilisations used "hieroglyphic" style texts?
(eg Egypt, the Hittites, the Minoans....)

Linear B Script

Linear B has shown to be the oldest form of Greek text from the Mycenaean Dialect. Unlike the earlier Linear A, this text has been translated and dated between 1500 - 1200BC.
See HERE for more details

Hebrew script was adopted as an alphabetic script from the Canaanite script somewhere around the 12th or 11th century BC and followed the style of the Phoenician script until around the 9th century when they began to specifically tailor their text for themselves as a national identity.

The earliest known Hebrew inscription is the Gezer Calendar pictured above. You will notice similarities of the text to the earlier Phoenician text. It is most likely a student exercise in writing listing a series of agricultural phases. The signature of the scribe appears in the bottom left corner his name being "Abijah". See here for more details.
( A newly found inscription written in "proto-Canaanite" script on a piece of broken pottery, has been found at Khirbet Qeifyafa and is presently paleographically and archaeologically dated to the time of David. More research on the text needs to be done to learn more from this older text).

Throughout the 8th century the knowledge of writing developed until an independent Hebrew script developed using a more cursive script style. Scripts have appeared on many formats including the Siloam Tunnel inscription (see HERE for details) and many seal impressions of the period.(See our Biblical Archaeology page and or Ancient seals page for more details).

Seal impression of King Hezekiah

 The oldest actual Biblical text found is a pair of small silver amulets titles the "Ketef Hinnom" silver scrolls found in a first temple tomb just outside the walls of Jerusalem  They contain scratched onto their surface the words of the "Priestly Blessing" from the book of Numbers 6:24-26 and are dated to 625BC.

The earliest Chinese writing most likely developed from these Oracle bones, used during the Shang Dynasty (c1200BC). They were used as a form of fortune telling. The diviner would apply a hot poker to the bone until it cracked, and he would then interpret the cracks. The predictions would then be written on the bone. Writing of the same style has been found also on Tortoise shells, while later forms of text were written on bamboo, wood and silk and eventually onto large bronze storage vessels.

The changing style of the Chinese characters in some way reflect the political climate throughout their history. The early Chinese characters developed during the period Shang Dynasty followed by a subtly different text called the "Great Seal" text during the Zhou Dynasty (1028-221BC) during which much turmoil and disunity took place. The Quin Dynasty (221BC) brought unity and along with it a simplified script called the "Small Seal" script and remained in use until the "Simplified" script was introduced under Communism in the 1950s in an attempt to encourage widespread literacy throughout China.

One legend says that an early official, one Cang Jie, of the mythical Yellow Emperor, invented writing 4000 years ago while observing animal and bird tracks and went on to create the ancient Chinese characters.  

The Chinese used Bamboo or wooden strips to write on, many thousands of which have been discovered since the 1930s opening up a myriad of copies of Chinese literature, poetry and history to modern scholars. The Taoist classic "the Classic of the way and virtue" being written on Bamboo slips is one of these...

Other classics such as the "Book of Songs" being the earliest Chinese poetry and the famous Sun-Tan's "Art of War" which is now used in military academies across the world have changed the way we look at Chines writing.

Around 1085AD a Chinese Artist named Zhang Zeduan produced a painted hand scroll known as the Quing Ming  Shang He Tu Scroll one of China's most famous cultural treasures. It depicts in both art and text life in a river city during a festival. The scroll is written/painted on silk and is over thirteen feet long. It is titled in Seal script accompanied by the authors seal impression along with other approving scribes' seals. The painting is headed throughout with the standard scribal text.

Chinese Bookbinding

Chinese "Stab Binding" also used by the Japanese and Koreans over many centuries.

The method of this binding is in several stages:

• The first stage is to fold the printed paper sheets. The printing method was to print two pages on one side of a large sheet, then fold it in half so the text appears on both sides.

• The second stage is to gather all the folded leaves into order and assemble the back and front covers. Important or luxury edition books have a further single leaf inserted in the fold of the leaves. Front covers tend to be replaced over time if it gets damaged. For very old books, the front cover is usually not original; for facsimiles, it is most certainly not.

• The third stage is to punch holes at the spine edge, around 1 cm from the spine. Four holes are the standard. Six holes are used on important books. If the book is a quality edition, the edges of the spine side are wrapped in silk which is stuck on to protect the edges.

• The fourth stage is to stitch the whole book together using a thin double silk cord. The knot is tied and concealed in the spine.

An Ostracon is a piece of pottery (or sometimes stone) that  had been previously part of a broken vessel and has now been used to write upon much in the same way we use scrap pieces of note paper today. It would be inscribed with ink or sometimes the text could be scratched into the surface.
The image above is of one of the "Lachish Ostraca #4" from ancient Judea. Available on Biblical Archaeology page.

QUESTION: What is the origin of the word "Ostracize"?

A student's exercise written on wood - Greek text from Egypt.
The writing is a black ink most likely made from carbon and water, they would often collect the black soot from oil lamps and combine it with water to make a black ink as well as various other methods.

A wooden "Mummy Tag" from Egypt. When the bodies were being prepared for burial, there would often be a large number of them being prepared at once, so to prevent getting them mixed up a piece of wood forming an identification tag would be attached to the body with the deceased's name on it. 

QUESTION: How did the Egyptian make red ink/paint?

One may not think of a coin as a form of writing, but think about it....

Coinage was a powerful means of propaganda in ancient times. Every one handled coins, and the message written thereon either in text or imagery was a powerful message distributed amongst the masses. The coin displayed here, the "Judea Capta" struck in Palestine by the Romans after the first Jewish revolt powerfully voiced Emperor Vespasian's attitude to his conquered subjects. It displays a Jewess as representative of the people of Judea sitting weeping by a palm tree, a male standing on the other side with hands bound behind his back alongside the weapons used to subdue them. On the obverse is the bust of Vespasian with the text "Imperato Caesar Vespasianus Augustus". Caesar proudly exhibiting a biting message to the people of the conquered Roman Empire. Whether it subdued the people of Judea or not can only be seen in the ongoing struggle and a second revolt just over 60 years later.

QUESTION: What does the "S.C" imaged below the palm tree mean"

Replica coins available on our "Ancient Coins" page.

Propaganda on currency hasn't changed much since ancient times.....

Question: Much debate rages over the imagery on the US dollar bill. The great seal of the US on the right is to a certain extent understandable but what purpose does the image on the right of the one dollar bill represent, the "All seeing eye" and the unfinished pyramid?

A wax tablet was usually made of wood (also could be made of ivory or various metals) and was covered inside with a layer of wax that could be inscribed upon using  a stylus. It was a practical rewritable and portable writing surface used commonly by the Greek, the Romans, the Assyrians and on into the Middle Ages. Roman Wax Tablet available on our Roman Page.

QUESTION: Where did the saying: "A clean slate come from"?

An Ivory carved Wax Tablet from the Middle Ages.

The chief scribe Hesire (2700-2650BC) an overseer of the scribes under Pharaoh Djoser, an image of him holding the tools of the trade....his writing instruments, a tall staff, a palette of  pigments, pen holder and a bag for supplies, while above him in hieroglyphs are the signs for scribe. He holds a scepter of authority. The hieroglyph for scribe changed over time but in this early period was quite obvious.
He was also chief dentist!

Scribes in ancient Egypt were a "princely profession" being in a class of social elite due to the importance of their skills in writing. It is thought that around one percent of the population was literate. We do not know as much about scribes in Egypt compared to Mesopotamia as the Egyptians wrote much on Papyrus that did not survive as long as the clay tablets of Mesopotamia.
A replica of the plaque of Hesire is available on our Egypt page.

QUESTION: Can you find the hieroglyph for scribe on the plaque of Hesire here?

Egyptian Hieratic Text –
The tale of Two Brothers – from Papyrus D’Orbiney

 Hieratic was a cursive writing system that developed in Egypt and was used alongside the Hieroglyphic system. It was closely related to the Hieroglyphic system but allowing scribes to write on papyrus quickly with a reed brush without the slow tedious process of trying to draw the hieroglyphs.

In the Ptolemaic period Demotic began to be used in everyday writing with Hieratic being used by only the priestly class.

The text displayed here is a section of the “Tale of two Brothers” which has similarities to the Biblical story of Joseph which was written much earlier.

Through most of its long history, hieratic was used for writing administrative documents, accounts, legal texts, and letters, as well as mathematical, medical, literary, and religious texts. During the Greco-Roman period, when Demotic (and later Greek) had become the chief administrative script, hieratic was limited primarily to religious texts. In general, hieratic was much more important than hieroglyphs throughout Egypt's history, being the script used in daily life. It was also the writing system first taught to students, knowledge of hieroglyphs being limited to a small minority who were given additional training. In fact, it is often possible to detect errors in hieroglyphic texts that came about due to a misunderstanding of an original hieratic text.

QUESTION: Which side of the Papyrus did the scribes write on?

QUESTION: What is an "Opisthograph"?

The Rosetta no doubt the world's most famous inscription was found in the town of el-Rashid (Rosetta) in Egypt by one of Napoleon's officers while rebuilding a fort there. For over 1000 years the language of ancient Egypt was undecipherable, many wondering at the many texts inscribed on the walls of palaces and tombs. Now the opportunity was there to crack the code, the stone had three texts in two languages, Egyptian Hieroglyphs the language of the gods, Egyptian Demotic a cursive form of writing and the text of koine Greek. The inscription was written in 196BC by the priests extolling the virtues of the 13 year old Pharaoh Ptolemy V.  However is was to take over 20 years to finally find a translation, Jean Francois Champollion being the man for the job. It was the recognition of Ptolemy's name in a cartouche that started the process to "crack the code".

QUESTION: What is a cartouche?
QUESTION: Name the other text used in ancient Egypt?

So what does the text actually say? Click HERE to find out.

The Rosetta Stone comprises 2 languages in three texts:

Hieroglyphs - the priestly language of Ancient Egypt that hadn't been used or understood since about 400AD.

Demotic - the cursive language of everyday Ancient Egypt.

Greek - Koine Greek that could still be read easily today.

Reproductions of the Rosetta Stone are available - see our Egypt page for details.

Sabean Monumental Inscription 100AD

Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the area of present day Ethiopia  and was used in the capital Aksum from the 4th century BC. Aksum was part of a trading nation on the horn of Africa that developed its own coinage climbing to be one of the four top trading nations of the world after Persia and Rome. Ge'ez ceased to be used as a language in the normal sense in the 18th century, but is now used as a liturgical language and text by the Ethiopian Orthodox church.
The page below is handwritten on vellum.

Question: What religious relic is Aksum famous for? 

Facsimile copies of the Ge'ez Bible page is available on our manuscripts page along with many other items.

 Much can be learnt from a manuscript...

Fr Columba Stewart of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library in Minnesota USA calls this the "Stickiness" of a manuscript...what can we learn not just from the text, but from the way the pages are bound, the smell, the soiling, the holes in the page and the way the scribe prepared the pages for writing.

So what is the "stickiness" of this manuscript?

This codex smells strongly of smoke as does another similar one that we have. It would have been read every night around the fire under the light of candles. The pages show along the edge of the pages the oil stains from the hands that have turned those pages thousands of times, the inward curve of the spine display that it is well used having spent much of its time open, while being read, and yes all those repairs to the pages..... 

In the image above is one such manuscript from our collection that teaches us a tremendous amount about its own history, about the history of the people of Ethiopia, even before the text is translated.

Click HERE to read about the "Stickiness" of this ancient codex. Adobe acrobat required.

 Ge'ez Bibles were considered very precious and were carried in a purpose made leather slip cover. These carry bags were worn over the shoulder.

The beginning of the Book!

(This section will be added to over coming months)

A replica of one of the "Nag Hammadi" codices (singular = Codex).

During the first century AD the change from the cumbersome scroll to the codex, the predecessor to our modern books began to take shape. When reading from a scroll, to find a particular passage you would need to roll the scroll with one hand while unrolling with the other, a tedious task! With the codex, you simply flipped it open to the page you needed as you would in a modern book.

The earliest codices were bound in wooden covers, hence the name Codex which crudely means a block of wood in Latin, an image of how the early codex appeared to people of the time.

The pages were made from papyrus as they were with the scroll but now they were able to be written on both sides. They were bound in groups of pages formed into quires, a term used to describe the means of folding a piece of papyrus to form multiple pages. If you look at some modern books from the bottom or top you can see groups of folded pages that are bound together, these are in fact quires.

The Roman wax tablet shown earlier on this page could be called a codex in that it is made of wood, hinged at one edge and often came in multiple pages.

More to come soon...

 In the Middle Ages, before the invention of the printing press it would take a long time and a lot of effort to produce these magnificent books known as Psalters/ Book of Hours and various illuminated manuscripts of the Bible as seen here.

Wealthy people who wished to flaunt their wealth and influence contracted scribes to produce an illuminated manuscript exclusively for them, having the text entirely written by hand and richly illuminated not just with images but also within the context of the text itself.

The scribes would do the body of the text and as many as six different artists would create the artwork including the enlarged artistic letters. The owner of this manuscript would pay the equivalent of what one would pay today for an expensive imported sports car.

One of the most famous illuminated manuscripts is the "Book of Kells" presently on display at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

DEFINITION: "Manuscript" = Manu - "hand", Scriptum - "written"

The quill has been used for over a thousand years as a writing instrument of choice by scribes and statesmen alike.  The quill was most likely first used in the 7th century AD, superseding the reed pen which had likewise been used for a long period before that. The availability of reed material suitable for making the reed pens had become difficult in Europe and so the quill came to the fore as a ready, suitable replacement. Reed pens wrote well on papyrus but not so on parchment. The quill was readily available, the best sourced from the flight wing of a goose, (also from the swan or turkey) the left wing outer feathers suiting a right handed scribe as in the image above. The goose feathers held their ink much longer than any other feather, after the tip had been carefully trimmed, hardened and cleaned ready for use. The use of a sharp pocket knife was always on hand to re trim the tip, as it wore easily, the quill when dipped in ink would write according to the type of tip the owner had cut. Each quill was unique in its ability to write script, with no two being exactly the same as the means of cutting the tip and its wear pattern greatly effected the style of writing. The word pen comes from the Latin word penna which means feather. After the invention of the metal nib, quills still remained in use because of its flexibility and ready supply. 

Question: Where does the word Penknife come from?

 Ottoman Divit - Scribe's Pencase/Inkwell

If only this item could talk...what a dramatic tale it could tell. Prior to the 20th century many people in the Middle East could not yet read or write, but they still needed contracts, deeds and various other documents that are required in business and general affairs. For these people the traveling scribe was their answer. He was just as important to them as the solicitor or accountant is to us today. He would write the documents for them for a fee and advise them on their needs. This brass pen case with an attached inkwell would have been carried in the scribes belt. It held his pen, some made of carved wood, some of brass, and ink would be placed in the lidded inkwell attached to the side. The divit has ornate scroll work on its sides, in this case covered in many years of grime, with an elongated "Cartouche" on the backside with the scribes name in Arabic characters and the number "1701", maybe representing the date he acquired it, be it by the western calendar or maybe by the Islamic calendar. He would place a small piece of silk into the inkwell to control the amount of ink the pen would pick up. Some divits were ornately made of gold with silver inlay, some inlaid with precious stones.  

Question: From where do we westerners get our numbering system from?

Read about life in Constantinople HERE

The oldest pencil found from recent times was a piece of graphite with a piece of wood glued to either side creating a pencil not unlike carpenters pencils still available today. In 1761 cabinet maker Kasper Faber made these pencils a viable item.

In 1565 a deposit of a greasy black substance on the roots of an upturned tree lead to the first steps in the development of the pencil. It was first used to mark sheep and later found a suitable writing tool as it could be erased despite its habit of staining the hands, but a suitable means of handling this greasy substance would take quite a long time to develop. Many years later a school girl managed to melt this ground up graphite, combine it with glue and pour the substance into the centre of a elder tree stem to create a crude but useful pencil.

In 1794 a process involving the mixing of poor grade ground graphite with clay lead (excuse the pun) to the development of a pencil that could have a hard tip yet produce a faint but legible line, or it could be a softer tip and produce a darker line. Nicholas Conte went on to perfect this process his company still making writing tools today.

The advantage of the pencil over the later pen and ink was that it could write in almost any weather, it could write on many different surfaces and could draw a continuous line 56 kilometers long.

Question: Why do we call them "lead" pencils when there is no lead in them at all?

A 19th century Inkwell, ink bottle and pen.

In the 19th century students would learn to write in various ways. Some very young children were taught to write with their fingers in a box of sand. They would then progress to a slate, on which they would write with a slate pencil which could then be rubbed out and rewritten upon. They would then progress to the dip pen and inkwell as seen above, writing on paper, first on a copy book to learn how to write text correctly then on plain paper.

Question: Where does the saying "to turn over a clean slate" come from?

A 19th century School Slate and Slate pencil (with holder)

School slates were first produced in the mid 18th century, but the early ones were not framed but were merely a sheet of slate on which the student could write his/her exercises after which they would then show to the teacher for checking. The work would then be rubbed away (often using the students sleeve) and the next lesson would start. Once the student had mastered their writing skills they would then move on to pen, ink and paper, that is in the schools that could afford paper. The student would write on the slate board with a pencil that was made from slate as well, the better off students having a holder/handle as seen in the image from our collection above. See Babylonian School Tablet.

It is this "school slate" that gave us the saying " a clean slate"! 

The first idea for a typewriter was devised in1714 by Henry Mill, but the first actual working typewriter was made by an Italian named Pellegrino Turri in 1808 for a blind friend. However over time various inventors devised various versions, the most peculiar being that by a pastor in Denmark, named Malling Hansen, it earned the nickname the writing ball as it looked like a pincushion with pins (the keys) sticking out the top. See the link to the Virtual Typewriting museum below.Typewriters developed on the US market, a Christopher Scholes developing a machine that used the now familiar standard Qwerty keyboard.It went on to be manufactured in the sewing machine division of the Remington Arms company.

Various styles of machine developed over time, progressively becoming more practical for everyday use.

The classic Underwood Typewriter developed first in 1895 was to gain ascendancy throughout the early 20th century with most manufacturers following the same style from then on.

Today the modern computer keyboard uses the same Qwerty keyboard layout developed back in 1874.

Virtual Typewriter Museum Click HERE

Question: Why is the Qwerty keyboard still in use today?

Question: Why "Typewriter" as a name?

Question: What is a typeface, and where do you use it today?

A secretary from the 1920's practicing her typing skills using practice exercises provided by companies such as Pittman, who also wrote shorthand exercises and dictionaries. Insert image is of one of the practice pages with comments and insertions. Many of the exercises were to develop skills in Business letter writing.

The Newspaper....

News, information or propaganda?

COMING SOON!

The Schoyen Collection -

one of the most impressive collections of ancient manuscripts and documents from the dawn of writing.

Click HERE. 

The University of Michigan Papyrus

Collection

What is a Papyrologist? Would you like to learn more about the fascinating science and study of ancient Papyrus manuscripts, then...

Click HERE.

The British Museum's Writing Of

Mesopotamia - Interactive

A fascinating introduction to the development of writing in ancient Mesopotamia, the "Cradle of Civilisation". Explore and investigate the life of a scribe.

Click HERE.

Omniglot

Writing systems and languages of the World.

Click HERE.