NES 4667 - [Origins of Writing]

(GHB) (CA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

Next offered 2014-2015.

J. Tenney.

The Near East is the birth place of the earliest scribal arts and several exotic scripts. This course examines the archaeological and intellectual context of writing from its earliest stages of development in the Near East to the Middle Bronze Age. We will discuss the prevailing theories of when, how, and why writing was invented, and the genres of early texts. This class is intended to introduce students to the historical and social milieu of ancient near eastern syllabic languages and the basic mechanics of the hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts. It is not a language class per se, and no previous language study is required.