GMoLS6E32 Scribes: The Invention of Writing with Donald Clark

First of a two-part series on the invention of writing and the impact of literacy on learning.

Our ability to learn from written texts is something we take for granted. But like every other technology that humans use, writing had to be invented. Notational signs used next to images of animals are seen in cave paintings from as early as 35,000 BCE. Actual writing is first recorded in Uruk (modern day Iraq), at the end of the 4th millennium BCE, but seems to have been independently invented in at least three other places; Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. It proved a pivotal moment in human history, marking the transition from prehistory to the historical record. In the centuries that followed, writing was to become central to learning. But the earliest uses to which it was put might be very different to what you would expect.

00:00:00 – Intro
00:01:06 – Introducing Scribes: The Invention of Writing
00:08:11 – Sumerians & Babylonians
00:23:09 – Egyptians
00:33:27 – Three Egyptian Scribes
00:51:39 – Chinese
01:01:18 – Summing up

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html Contact Donald