WRITING

In one of our monthly ‘Poetry in Paradise” group meeting, I read a love poem I presented Gerry with, on our 39^th wedding anniversary. When members realised I wrote it in Hebrew as well, I was asked to read it in that language.

Since the poem was too long to be read to people who do not understand the language, I opted for a short one I had in both languages as well; to be presented at a later date.

Then, I thought it would be wise to say few words about the structure of the language, as the Hebrew is so different from the English. On top of it, being the language of the Bible and so very old, a quick rundown about its long history may be interesting.

As per usual, I looked deeper into the subject before talking about it, to make sure my information is correct. This led me to the fascinating subject of the origin of write.

It is funny, but we do take writing for granted, as we do many other things; and we never think how they came about.

Many of us, me included, think or thought that the Egyptian hieroglyphics were the first form of writing. But I learnt that it wasn’t so. I learnt that the first to write were the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, where Abraham came from.

Their type of writing, called ‘Coniform’, started because of their need to record their commercial activities.

They started by dabbing reed ends into wet rectangular shaped clay tablets before they dried out and hardened. One dab stood for number 1, two for 2 and so on.

Many of these tablets were found, and are on display in the British museum in London; They are huge; standing larger than man one next to the other; and next to tablets etched with full size figures of the those Sumerians who used it – An extra ordinary and very impressive sight indeed.

In those days, Egypt had a backwards society, and the Sumerians, the world’s first civilization, apparently brought writing to the Egyptians with their commercial endeavours; thus instigating the development of the Hieroglyphics. Those Hieroglyphics were, at the beginning, used primarily for religious purposes.

The Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics recoding systems were very cumbersome and not transportable, and there was a need for an easier way of writing to develop. This need brought about the development of the Alfa Bait system, on which I will enlarge in my next posting on this fascinating subject.

Renate

Artist, poet and the author of

From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country

See my website at -

http://www.promisedland-renate.com