Pierre Grandet, “Weights and Measures.” In Th e Oxford Encyclo-
pedia of Ancient Egypt, vol. 3, ed. Donald B. Redford (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001).
Mabel Lang and Margaret Crosby, We ig ht s , Mea sure s , and Tok e n s
(Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Ath-
ens, 1964).
Andy Meadows and Kirsty Shipton, eds., Money and Its Uses in the
Ancient Greek World (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press,
2001).
Helen Parkins and Christopher Smith, eds., Trade, Traders and the
Ancient City (London: Routledge, 1998).
Karl M. Petruso, “Early Weights and Weighing in Egypt and the
Indus Valley,” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 79
(1981): 44–51.▶ writing
introduction
Th e earliest writing systems, oft en referred to as proto-writ-
ing, emerged during the Neolithic Period, probably in about
the seventh millennium b.c.e. Archaeologists have found this
type of writing, which consisted of symbols that stood for ob-
jects or ideas, inscribed on tablets or such objects as tortoise
shells. Not much information, however, could be recorded by
this type of writing. Writing proper is believed to have origi-
nated in ancient Sumer in the Near East during the Bronze
Age, in about the fourth millennium b.c.e. At roughly the
same time, a form of writing called Proto-Elamite developed
in Persia (modern-day Iran), and by 3200 b.c.e. the ancient
Egyptians had a form of writing. By 1900 b.c.e. writing had
developed in India. Th e Chinese, meanwhile, produced proto-
writing as far back as 6000 b.c.e. and had formed a script by
1600 b.c.e. Other early writing systems that historians have
discovered (and in some cases have been unable to decipher)
include Anatolian hieroglyphs and writing from the island
of Crete, both from around the second millennium b.c.e.,
and various Semetic languages that emerged in the Near East
in roughly 1800 b.c.e. With only very few exceptions, such
as the writing system of the ancient Maya in the Americas,
all writing scripts throughout the world descended from the
writing systems of the Near East or China.
Writing in the ancient world took various forms. Th e
earliest is called logographic, from the Greek word logos,
meaning “word.” Logographic writing consisted either of pic-
tographs (symbols that were essentially pictures of the thing
represented) or ideographs (symbolic representations of con-
cepts). Later, more fl exible writing systems consisted of syl-
labaries, or lists of symbols that stood for syllables.
Th ese types of writing systems, however, were cumber-
some and diffi cult to learn, for they required the use of hun-
dreds, if not thousands of symbols. A major step forward was
the development of alphabetic writing during the Iron Age.
Now a small number of symbols could be used to represent
the sounds contained in a word. Th e earliest-known alpha-betic systems of writing were those of the Semitic languages,
and the written languages of ancient Greece and Rome were
alphabetic. Some ancient writing systems were a mixture or
two or even all three of these types of writing.
Two other terms are oft en used in connection with an-
cient writing systems: cuneiform and hieroglyphs. Th e writ-
ing of the Sumerians was cuneiform, a word that derives
from a word meaning “wedge.” Cuneiform writing consists
of wedge-shaped symbols that took this shape because they
were pressed with a stylus into wet clay. Th e word hieroglyphs
is commonly used to refer to the writing of ancient Egypt
as well as the Anatolian script mentioned earlier. While the
word is widely used, specialists in Egyptian archaeology
and history discourage it, primarily because the word is of
Greek origin and does not have a precise meaning. Generally,
though, hieroglyphs refers to the complex artistic writing of
the ancient Egyptians, typically practiced by trained scribes
and the priestly class. Th is system consisted of three classes of
symbols: phonetic symbols that functioned like an alphabet,
logographs, and a third set of symbols called determinatives
that narrowed the meaning of a logograph.AFRICA
BY DIANNE WHITE OYLER
Writing in the African society and culture of the ancient
world dates back to 3000 b.c.e. in the Nile River valley aft er
the political unifi cation of Upper and Lower Egypt by King
Menes. Hieroglyphics, a Greek word meaning “sacred text,” is
the fi rst indigenous African writing system.
Along the upper Nile River, south of Egypt, Nubia had
been infl uenced by Egypt in the use of the Egyptian language
and writing system through trade and conquest. Although
hieroglyphics were known by people living along the up-
per Nile, the region was not receptive to adopting a writing
system. Th e more rural part of the river lacked the urban,
centralized government that required detailed record keep-
ing. Both Nubia and the kingdom of Kush adopted the hiero-
glyphic writing system from Egypt. However, although the
kingdom of Kush and the kingdom of Kush at Meroë pos-
sessed literate societies, not everyone was able to read and to
write. Members of the royal and upper classes, priests, and
scribes enjoyed an education through which they controlled
society by possessing written knowledge. Everyone else lived
in a preliterate world that coexisted in a symbiotic relation-
ship with the literate one.
Th e Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system was adapted
between the eighth and fourth centuries b.c.e., during the
Napatan Period, when a form of hieroglyphic writing was
used in texts. Th e Kushite rulers of Egypt’s Twenty-fi ft h Dy-
nasty—Kashta, Piye, and Shabaka—used hieroglyphics to
write about their conquests on steles placed throughout the
combined kingdoms. In 170 b.c.e. Queen Shanakdakhete
became the fi rst female ruler of the Meroitic Period. During
her 10-year reign she used Meroitic hieroglyphs to inscribewriting: Africa 11830895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1183 1183 10/10/07 2:31:22 PM