- The Collaborative Numismatics Project
  Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! NumisWiki Is An Enormous Unique Resource Including Hundreds Of Books And Thousands Of Articles Online!!! The Column On The Left Includes Our "Best of NumisWiki" Menu If You Are New To Collecting - Start With Ancient Coin Collecting 101 NumisWiki Includes The Encyclopedia of Roman Coins and Historia Nummorum If You Have Written A Numismatic Article - Please Add It To NumisWiki All Blue Text On The Website Is Linked - Keep Clicking To ENDLESSLY EXPLORE!!! Please Visit Our Shop And Find A Coin You Love Today!!!

× Resources Home
Home
New Articles
Most Popular
Recent Changes
Current Projects
Admin Discussions
Guidelines
How to
zoom.asp
Index Of All Titles


BEST OF

AEQVITI
Aes Formatum
Aes Rude
The Age of Gallienus
Alexander Tetradrachms
Ancient Coin Collecting 101
Ancient Coin Prices 101
Ancient Coin Dates
Ancient Coin Lesson Plans
Ancient Coins & Modern Fakes
Ancient Counterfeits
Ancient Glass
Ancient Metal Arrowheads
Ancient Oil Lamps
Ancient Pottery
Ancient Weapons
Ancient Wages and Prices
Ancient Weights and Scales
Anonymous Follis
Anonymous Class A Folles
Antioch Officinae
Aphlaston
Armenian Numismatics Page
Augustus - Facing Portrait
Brockage
Bronze Disease
Byzantine
Byzantine Denominations
A Cabinet of Greek Coins
Caesarean and Actian Eras
Campgates of Constantine
Carausius
A Case of Counterfeits
Byzantine Christian Themes
Clashed Dies
Codewords
Coins of Pontius Pilate
Conditions of Manufacture
Corinth Coins and Cults
Countermarked in Late Antiquity
Danubian Celts
Damnatio Coinage
Damnatio Memoriae
Denomination
Denarii of Otho
Diameter 101
Die Alignment 101
Dictionary of Roman Coins
Doug Smith's Ancient Coins
Draco
Edict on Prices
ERIC
ERIC - Rarity Tables
Etruscan Alphabet
The Evolving Ancient Coin Market
EQVITI
Fel Temp Reparatio
Fertility Pregnancy and Childbirth
Fibula
Flavian
Fourree
Friend or Foe
The Gallic Empire
Gallienus Zoo
Greek Alphabet
Greek Coins
Greek Dates
Greek Coin Denominations
Greek Mythology Link
Greek Numismatic Dictionary
Hellenistic Names & their Meanings
Hasmoneans
Hasmonean Dynasty
Helvetica's ID Help Page
The Hexastyle Temple of Caligula
Historia Numorum
Holy Land Antiquities
Horse Harnesses
Illustrated Ancient Coin Glossary
Important Collection Auctions
Islamic Rulers and Dynasties
Julian II: The Beard and the Bull
Julius Caesar - The Funeral Speech
Koson
Kushan Coins
Later Roman Coinage
Latin Plurals
Latin Pronunciation
Legend
Library of Ancient Coinage
Life in Ancient Rome
List of Kings of Judea
Medusa Coins
Maps of the Ancient World
Military Belts
Military Belts
Mint Marks
Monogram
Museum Collections Available Online
Nabataea
Nabataean Alphabet
Nabataean Numerals
The [Not] Cuirassed Elephant
Not in RIC
Numismatic Bulgarian
Numismatic Excellence Award
Numismatic French
Numismatic German
Numismatic Italian
Numismatic Spanish
Parthian Coins
Patina 101
Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet
Paleo-Hebrew Script Styles
People in the Bible Who Issued Coins
Imperial Mints of Philip the Arab
Phoenician Alphabet
Pi-Style Athens Tetradrachms
Pricing and Grading Roman Coins
Reading Judean Coins
Representations of Alexander the Great
Roman Coin Attribution 101
Roman Coin Legends and Inscriptions
Roman Keys
Roman Locks
Roman Militaria
Roman Military Belts
Roman Mints
Roman Names
romancoin.info
Rome and China
Sasanian
Satyrs and Nymphs
Scarabs
Serdi Celts
Serrated
Siglos
The Sign that Changed the World
Silver Content of Parthian Drachms
Star of Bethlehem Coins
Statuary Coins
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum
Syracusian Folles
Taras Drachms with Owl Left
The Temple Tax
The Temple Tax Hoard
Test Cut
Travels of Paul
Tribute Penny
Tribute Penny Debate Continued (2015)
Tribute Penny Debate Revisited (2006)
Tyrian Shekels
Uncleaned Ancient Coins 101
Vabalathus
Venus Cloacina
What I Like About Ancient Coins
Who was Trajan Decius
Widow's Mite
XXI

   View Menu
 

Ancient Writing

Reprinted by permission from "Artifacts of Ancient Civilizations" by Alex G. Malloy. Updates by Joseph Sermarini

The written word, the most important means of communication, has always been the main aspect by which, a people establishes itself as a civilization. By inventing a writing system, a people could progress from a simple agrarian group to a more complex society which has the ability to form governmental system, and to educate its members. Writing, as the tool of mankind, has enabled men to become learned scholars, brought separate cultures within each other’s reach, and preserved historical events and happenings for posterity.

Cuneiform

Cuneiform, probably the oldest system of writing, was employed by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians over 200 years before Christ. At first, this wedge-shaped writing represented, in pictorial form, a few animate and inanimate objects. These signs then arose to depict phonetic values. Therefore, before long, cuneiform developed into a clearly defined linear script which could be used consistently and easily by Western Asiatic scribes.

Hieroglyphic Writing

This ancient script, called by the Egyptians "the speech of the Gods" was used mainly for inscriptional writing. Even as early as 3000 B.C., hieroglyphic writing was a highly developed pictorial and ideographic system. Strangely enough, although this formal style was to last over 3000 years, it never flourished, nor, indeed, spread past the borders of Egypt. Subsequently, with the rise of the incoming Greek and Latin languages, this beautiful script died along with great dynasties of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

Hieratic Writing

When writing on papyrus and ostraca for business purposes, the ancient Egyptian scribe turned from hieroglyphic script to hieratic, which was a cursive derivative. Not only was hieratic used for business and religious texts, it was, in contrast, also used for profane writing. Hieratic was not utilized instead of hieroglyphic writing, but rather in conjunction with it- a quicker, "shorthand" script of a sometimes laborious hieroglyphic script.

Aramaic

Not to be confused with Jewish-Aramaic, Aramaic was often called Syriac by the Jews. It was a script used by the heathen neighbors of the Jews- the Aramaeans. The Aramaeans were wandering tribesmen who eventually settled in modern-day Syria around the 11th or 12th B.C. Their script was alphabetic rather than pictorial, and from its conception progressed into a rather cursive script. By the 7th century B.C., Aramaic had become not only prominent, but the official language of the Near East, particularly of the Persian Empire.

Hebrew

Originally an offshoot of the Canaanite language, Hebrew began to become distinct around the 11th century B.C. Its use continued for 500 years, until somewhere around the 6th century B.C. For a long time, sample of early Hebrew writing were scarce, but over the past century hundreds of inscriptions have been founded, are an important source of information about the language and period of the Old Testament.

Edessan Syriac

Edessa, in northwest Mesopotamia, was one of the first centers of Christianity in the Syriac-speaking world. It was an island in a primarily Greek-speaking area. Edessan Syriac was a branch of Aramaic which became the most important language in the Eastern Roman Empire after Greek. The language gradually died out, except for some liturgical passage, because of the conquering foreigners – first the Persians and then the Arabs.

Greek

One can never underestimate the importance of the Greek language, because most of the European languages are related to ancient Greek. The Greeks attributed the invention of their alphabet to the Phoenicians, from whom they learned the ability to write in approximately the 11th century B.C. At first written from right to left, Greek the progressed into being written alternatively from either right to left or left to right. However, it was only after 800 B.C. that it became commonplace to write left to right.  Greek writing is not frequently available. Usually when it is encountered, it is in the form of an inscription on an object, or a name signed on a Greek vase by its maker. Papyrus fragments with Greek writings are highly sought after.

Coptic

The Coptic language is the only offshoot of the Greek which developed into a non-European language. Up until the 20th century, Coptic liturgical verses were still spoken in the Christian villages of Upper Egypt. Consisting mainly of Greek letters, Coptic does contain a part of its Egyptian heritage by using seven letters of the Demotic languages or script. Demotic script was used in the Late period of ancient Egypt.

Classical Latin

The Latin language was spread by Roman legionaries throughout most of the Roman Empire. It is the ancestor and basis of the Romance languages, for example, French or Spanish, and has influenced the majority of all the Europeans languages. Today, it is thought that Latin originates from both the Greek and Etruscan alphabets, not purely from the Greek languages, as was previously believed. An accurate date for the beginning of Latin is unobtainable; however, it was probably created approximately in the 7th century B.C.

REFERENCES

Diringer, D. The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind. (New York, 1948).
Diringer, D. Writing. (New York, 1967).
Malloy, A. Writings of Mankind 1990. (South Salem, NY, 1990).

All coins are guaranteed for eternity