Ancient Script

Before our modern writing we know of today, many ancient scripts were used, such as Petroglyphs, Hieroglyphics, Ideograms, Pictorial and Qoph.

Petroglyphs The petroglyph is one the earliest known forms of art along with record-keeping, some prehistoric petroglyphs exist around the globe, dating as far back as ten thousand years ago. A petroglyph is an image carved or etched into rock, which is made by scratching away the top surface of rock to reveal the underlying of a different color compared to the surface.

Hieroglyphics, rather than using an alphabet to record language, this system of writing uses logograms. Logograms are single characters which may generally represent a word subject or an idea; several modern languages use logograms including Chinese and Japanese.

An ideogram is a symbol, often used within a written language, which utilizes a picture, rather than letters, to represent particular ideas or concepts. This type of image is usually conceptual or abstract in nature, as the image frequently represents something greater than what can be expressed through a direct representation.

A pictorial is a symbol to represent a word or phrase. Pictographs were used as the earliest known form of writing, examples of these gave been discovered in Mesopotamia and Egypt from before 3000 B.C. A set of letters or symbols in a fixed order, used to represent the basic sounds of a language. They are many alphabets across the world. Three examples of these alphabets are Greek, Arabic and Braille.

Qoph is the 19th letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

Three alphabets are the Georgian, Arabic and Braille and the western standard used in the world today is Latin.

Advantages and limitations of ideogrammatic codes: These languages may be easier to learn and understand as they are each symbolize a certain object or action rather than having to be pronounced letter by letter. For example, in Egypt to make it easier for scribes to receive instruction they were there writing was given to them in formal hieroglyphics beforehand and then translated rather than being dictated to them.

Alphabetic codes Some advantages are that these can be simple, distinctive and easy to write and copy, therefore being Universal . Limitations are, when we speak we dont naturally hear the elements of our speech separately, which consist of the fundamentals of alphabetic spelling. Rather we hear them flowing as a continuous wave of sound.

Modern devices that use pictographic, ideogrammatic and alphabetic codes code are the computer and the cellular phone. The Chinese civilization uses ideogrammatic code rather than alphabetic codes, mainly because it was born from the use of images.

Paper was created in ancient China and was made by use of a chemical process which created pulp from the pulp of woods and grasses. As for the white colour different chalks or clays could be added. While papyrus was made in ancient Egypt by using the inside of the interior of the stalk of the papyrus plant. It was once a very prominent surface used for writing although being rough and highly tensile. Six surfaces used for writing and painting before the advent of paper are; Wood, Bamboo, Papyrus, Rock, Parchment and Clay. Tools used for writing on these surfaces: WDE5378 Bamboo- knives also and or inked Papyrus- powdered inked apply by a pen Rock- mallets, axes, chisels used for carving or etching. Parchment-used by scribes applied by ink Clay- stylus with sharp triangular tips done by carving into the clay tablets.