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From
Pictures to Symbols
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Mesopotamian
Counting Tokens
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The earliest written symbols were
incised "counting tokens" that were created about 9,000
years ago in the Neolithic Fertile Crescent.
Later, around 4100 to 3800 BCE, tokens were used as symbols
that could be impressed or inscribed in clay to represent a record
of land, grain, or cattle. Some
of the earliest tokens were found in the excavations of Uruk in
Mesopotamia, which had an economy that centered on the cultivation
of grain.
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One of the
major products that resulted from the storage of grain was the
production of beer. It should not be surprising,
therefore, that some of the very oldest written inscriptions record the
celebration of beer and the daily ration allotted to each citizen.
I bet you thought that beer commercials were a new thing!
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Egyptian
Writing
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In
early societies writing was viewed as a sacred and secret
ritual, which only the "initiated" were taught.
Very early in the history of writing we discover a great deal of
interest in the spiritual dimension of the ancient world.
Priests used the mystical writings to record the words of their
gods. The creation myths of Sumer are among the earliest
and were written several thousand years before the first words
of our Bible were recorded.
In
ancient Egypt there was no Sacred Holy Book of Scripture, there
were ritual and religious texts, applicable to temple practices,
which the priests used. The phraseology of spoken ritual must
have been transmitted by word of mouth for generations before
the written language could deal with it.
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Egyptian
Scribe
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Lector Priest
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The
surviving religious literature of the Old Kingdom suggests the
existence of priestly colleges or centers of religious learning
where the mythologies were developed. The largest body of
religious literature from this time is that of the Pyramid Texts.
The
sacred texts were read or performed by a very special type of religious
functionary known as kher heb, the lector priest. The aura of
mystery surrounding the written word gave lector priests a powerful
position and their feature in several stories such as King Khufu and the
Magicians. One of the sons of Ramesses
II, Prince Khaemwse, is portrayed
as a seeker after wisdom in Late Period stories. In one he comes to hear
of a sacred book written by Thoth himself.
| The lector priest had a duty to
recite the sacred texts exactly as they were written in the rituals
performed before the cult statue of the deity. Deviation from the ordained
words would have offended the god, so the words were always read from the
book, not from memory.
In
Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates recounts the mythical origin of writing.
A god offers an Egyptian king a miraculous aid to frail human
memory. Like the king, Socrates is skeptical of this enigmatic invention.
Writing, he warns, will replace memory; the truth that lives in the human
soul will be dissolved in its translation into ambiguous inscription.
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Socrates |
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If you chose Option 2 and are participating in the BHC
Leadership Development Program you are to write a summary of this
lesson. Tell us what you learned and make any suggestions on how to
improve the lesson. Include any comments on how this information
affected your spirituality. E-mail your paper to us by clicking here
and attaching your finished paper. If possible use WORD format.
END OF LESSON ONE
CONTINUE TO LESSON
TWO
v/07/11/03 |
