by Delaynna Trim, Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art Curator
It is already back to school time! School has been around in one form or another for a
long time. The ancient Babylonians learned to write just like us, by practicing. Did you know that the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art has an ancient Babylonian school book? Well, it is actually a clay tablet that was used by students to practice writing. The teacher
would write on one side and the student would copy it on the other. They used a stylus, a tool for writing or scratching, to write in clay and fired it to preserve the writing. This tablet is not fired so they can keep reusing it, like a chalkboard. They wrote everything from receipts and lists to entire stories like Gilgamesh, in a script we call cuneiform. The MGMoA has several pieces with cuneiform writing on exhibit, including the practice one.
Cuneiform is one of the oldest forms of writing known, created around 3500 BC. It means "wedge-shaped," because people wrote it using a reed stylus cut to make a wedge-shaped mark on a clay tablet. Many different ancient civilizations used a form of cuneiform including the Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Akkadians, and Assyrians. Cuneiform signs were used to render both words and sounds, and a single sign could signify multiple words and/or sounds. This makes translation tricky. The Akkadians wrote their language phonetically (how it sounds) for the most part, but some symbols they used because it looked like the item it was meant to describe. As languages evolve, so do the symbols or letters used. Depending upon your generation, the “#” symbol could have different meanings.
The English alphabet (which is what I am using to write this) consists of 26 letters of Latin script. These letters combine to form words. This alphabet originated in the 7th century to write Old English from Latin script. It has changed since then with several letters used in Old and Middle English not used anymore including: thorn (þ), eth (ð), wynn (ƿ), yogh (ȝ), ash (æ), and ethel (œ). These letters were replaced by other combinations of letters that created similar sounds. If you hear something being read in Old or Middle English it sounds very different to our modern ears.
According to Britannica, the five most commonly used writing systems are Latin, Chinese, Arabic, Devanagari, and Bengali. English and many European languages are written using Latin or Roman letters.
Project: Hand lettering
Supplies: Markers, pens, paper
Find some styles of lettering that you like from books, magazines, photos, the internet, etc. then try to copy it. Be patient. It takes several attempts to do it. Check out www.mgmoa.org/art-projects for helpful videos.
Once you mastered one technique, what do you want to write? Create some signs with inspirational words or your name. Use fun colors. Be creative!
Calligraphy
Calligraphy and hand lettering for Beginners
