Ancient Egypt 3100 BC unified
Sumerian inventions to Egypt
writing system = hieroglyphs (3100 - 349BC)
key = Rosetta Stone (197) Greek and Demotic script (egyptian vernacular)
system not transferred to Greeks or Romans (writing lost until 19th
century)
1822 Jean François Champollion broke code
rebus for words + pictorial symbols
signs were alphabetic, syllabic + determinative (homonyms)
start from direction which living being faced (4)
papyrus 1st paper substrate
lighter + stronger than clay
travel
scroll like
began bookwriting/long documentation
= simplification of form
= scribes more powerful b/c more writing
more writing = simplified form
book script dev by 1500 BC
commercial development of papyrus
could buy book of the dead (w/ images)
hire scribe to complete book
uniformity bred economy