โ All ancient topics
How did writing begin?
From clay marks to letters
Have you ever wondered how people sent messages to each other before paper and pencils existed?
1/6
- 10,000 years ago
Counting with Clay
Farmers needed to remember how many cows they owned. They made little clay balls and cones to count them!
The big idea
Writing started as tiny clay tokens used for counting sheep and grain!
Fun facts
- โจ The oldest written recipe ever found on a clay tablet is for making soup!
- โจ Ancient Egyptian writing uses pictures called hieroglyphs, which means 'sacred carvings'.
- โจ Important clay tablets were baked in hot fire so they would last forever.
Science words
- Cuneiform โ An ancient way of writing using wedge-shaped marks in clay.
- Scribe โ A person long ago whose special job was writing down information.
- Pictograph โ A simple picture that stands for a word or an idea.