The ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek civilizations are two of the oldest known civilizations. The Egyptian civilization, based in the northern part of Africa, which started around 3150 BC and finished at the end of 31 BC. The ancient Greek started from 1100 BC until about 146 BC. There are several similarities and differences existed between these two civilizations, even though they co-existed during a period (about 1150 BC to 146 BC) Particularly, they were in different geographical areas.
Writing is one of the most significant developments of the ancient civilisation. Today, we could better understand the history of ancient Egypt and ancient Greece by analysis their writing system, because it could reflect several significant evidence
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Who is a producer of the hieroglyph is a vital evidence? Unfortunately, the origin of the hieroglyphs is poorly understood. The surviving texts in the Egyptian language are written in the hieroglyphic script. However, during the excavation, the majority of the script were written on papyrus in hieratic and demotic, which are now lost. There was also a type of cursive hieroglyphic script used for religious documents on papyrus, as the Books of the Dead in the Ramesside Period, which was closer to the stone-carved hieroglyphs. Additionally, there was a stone-cut hieratic known as hieratic. Finally, the Coptic alphabet replaced the older writing system. The name for Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is "writing of the words of God." Hieroglyphs are applied in two ways in Egyptian texts: as ideograms that represent the idea depicted by the pictures; and commonly as phonograms denoting their phonetic …show more content…
Particularly, the contribution of Greek literature. During the Classic period, it witnessed a flourish in Greek literature. The Homeric Hymns was created with the Greek alphabet. Moreover, several Greek poets such as Hesiod, and Sappho. In 1963, anthropologists Jack Goody and Lan Watt published the article: The Consequences of Literacy Comparative Studies in Society and History. They argued that the flourish in Classic period mainly due to the application of new writing. It is a ‘’ democratic’’ script as opposite to the ‘’ theocratic’’ script in Egypt. The alphabet takes advantage of a socially-conventionalised pattern of sound in their language system.
In conclusion, both of two writing system were the major component of the ancient civilisation. Ancient Egypt was an enormous kingdom; it makes their society divide by different classes of people likes a pyramid. The centralised politic environment caused serious impact on their culture and writing that more involved in constructed great monumental building to Greece were democratic civilization and their Greek alphabet provided an equal opportunity for people to learn
Without the Mesopotamians we would not have all the luxury we have today. Could you ever imagine a world without writing? You may think, life would not be so bad without it, but without writing we would not have stories, we could not write to the bank, we could not text. Two major contributions made to society were the first forms of writing known as Cuneiform and Hammurabi’s Code.
Writing is one of the many factors which can lead to an unequal world. Writing was “One of the most important inventions in human history” (Prososki, “Writing”). It was believed to come from the Fertile Crescent called Sumer around 5,000 years ago. Over the years, writing has advanced as people created writing and printing systems, which were able to reach
The need for writing in Uruk was drastically different than that of the Egyptians, however. As evidenced at the archaeological site of Hierakonpolis, the Egyptian sy...
Humans have been using written language to communicate ideas with one another since as early as 3200 BCE in Mesopotamia. Since then, every great civilization has had a written language, each with its own unique characteristics. However, it was the writin...
Ancient Greek culture first emerged around 1600 B.C. in Mycenae. This developed a powerful military and participated in a wide trading network. Over the next thousand years, Greek society organized itself into city-states. The most famous ones were Athens and Sparta. They served as centers of political, religious, and cultural life.
The Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia grew up to be successful civilizations. The surroundings of where they are located assisted them in survival. Although their lifestyles were different, both civilizations became successful in their own ways. Finally, their similar belief was a very helpful guidance when their rulers governed. Without these factors, the two civilizations might not have been
According to history there existed two of many important ancient civilizations that left a significant mark in the history of human development that even today leaves modern society in awe of its greatness. In spite of being distant civilizations, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece share similarities and difference in terms of how they practiced religion,political structure, everyday life style, and how they built the monumental architectures that continued to amaze the modern world of today. These comparison and contrast explain their difference in history and their dynasty's long term success. Through the early developmental age these two ancient civilizations contrasted in many ways perhaps due to the geographical location that helped shape their diverse cultures.
Arguably one of the most important discoveries made regarding the historical and cultural study of ancient Egypt is the translation of the writing form known as hieroglyphics. This language, lost for thousands of years, formed a tantalizing challenge to a young Jean François who committed his life to its translation. Scholars such as Sylvestre de Sacy had attempted to translate the Rosetta Stone before Champollion, but after painstaking and unfruitful work, they abandoned it (Giblin 32). Champollion’s breakthrough with hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone opened up new possibilities to study and understand ancient Egypt like never before, and modern Egyptology was born.
Like the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians also believed in god and goddesses and was one of the first to develop their unique writing system called hieroglyphics. Egyptian’s also were the first to construct triangular pyramids with magnificent tombs to bury their dead pharaohs and queens. These pyramids were very comparable to the ziggurats built by the Mesopotamians. The Egyptians unlocked more access when they started using papyrus to make paper in order to communicate. They also inven...
... helped the architecture to have accurate measurements . Another civilization that also developed a system of writing was China. The written language could be easily to read and understand, but when they spoke it it was difficult to understand. This civilization had a big advantage with the system of writing because all parts of china everyone could learn the language even if they already spoke a different language. This helped make a great civilization because it unifies a large and diverse land and this helped to control it easier. One disadvantage it has is that the writing system has a lot of things to memorize. So if you were a wealthy kid and went to a good school you could memorize the major part of the language, but if you were in the lower class and went to a cheap school then you had trouble learning the language because they didn’t teach the whole language
These concepts had a major influence on many civilizations of the future, including most of the world today. The first basic forms of arithmetic were introduced, leading to advancements in many other aspects of life, such as architecture. Hieroglyphics were symbols used as a form of writing and communication. Either painted or carved into stone, they left behind a record of their world. These hieroglyphics were often complex symbols, so hieratic numerals were shaped as a more general form of writing to create more efficiency in their everyday lives (Oliver 6). “Egyptian priest-astronomers studied the heavens, mapping constellations and charting the movements of the planets” (Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis et al. 32). Using this knowledge, the egyptians developed the 365 day calendar which obviously had a major imprint on society today. They used their skill and intellect to build great structures and monuments (the Great Pyramids are some of the most sophisticated ones known today). Above all, the world 's first national government was organized, which was a foundation of their society. Pharaohs ruled with the assistance of a chief minister who would oversee the business of government. These chief ministers would keep track of many important things like tax collection, management of irrigation systems, and farming (Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis et al. 25). They had thousands of scribes that put forth instruction to
Hailed as the archaeological find of modern times they were made out of papyrus or animal skins called gevil and written right to left with no punctuation. In fact there were no spaces between words they simply ran together. Written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek using ink made from carbon black and white pigments and using birds feathers as writing implements.
Approximately four thousand years ago in Menet Khufu, a small village in Ancient Egyptian, the beginnings of an essential component to cryptology was founded, the modification of text. In a tomb of a local noblesman, Khnumhotep II, hieroglyphic inscriptions were written with unusual symbols in order to confuse and obscure the meaning of the inscriptions being written. It is said that a nobleman’s tomb’s decorations often “break” with the norms of a typical Egyptian tomb (www.cs.dartmouth.edu). Khnumhotep’s tomb is an example of this “breaking from the norm”, which could signify his importance during his lifetime. The next example of cryptology surfacing in ancient times is about 400 years later in Ancient Mesopotamia.
The older of the two, Ancient Greece was a civilization for three centuries, from 800 B.C. to 500 B.C. Ancient Greece advanced in art, poetry, and technology. More importantly, Ancient Greece was the age where the polis, or city-state, was invented. The polis was a defining feature in Greek political life for a few hundred years (Ancient Greece).
The literature of Ancient Egypt is the result of a four thousand year period. Hieroglyphic, demotic and hieratic are the three types of writing it was written in. The characters first consisted of pictures of objects, and ...