Writing+and+Inventions

=__Chaldea:      __= =   Writing and Inventions    = __By Bianca Verjee__

__Writing__

The earliest writing was based on pictograms. Pictograms are pictures used to represent a word. Pictograms were used to communicate basic information such as crops or taxes. In early Mesopotamia (around the fourth millennium B.C.E.) cuneiform script was invented to record and communicate. Cuneiform means wedge-shaped because of the triangular shaped stylus that was used for pressing signs on wet clay. It took many years to master this skill so only a few people were hired as scribes to be taught how to read and write.

Cuneiform symbols represented syllables, but some also represented whole words. Eventually cuneiform writing was changed into something that was more like an alphabet. For thousands of years Mesopotamian scribes recorded events, trade, laws, and astronomy on clay tablets.



__Inventions__ Some of the inventions that were invented by the Chaldeans were the sundial and the seven-day week. The sundial was a round object that was shaped like a bowl. It was made of clay and it had a stick extending from the side. On the surface there were grid lines to divide the time intervals. When the sun shined on the sundial, the stick made a shadow on the grid lines and by looking at the line on sundial where the shadow fell, you could tell the time.  The Chaldeans's were known for their astrology/astronomy, so //Chaldean// came to mean //astrologer/astronomer//. The Chaldeans invented the first seven day week by using astronomy/astrology. Each day the Chaldeans would worship a different object that could be seen in the sky with the naked eye. These objects were the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Below is a list showing which objects were worshiped each day.

Sunday-Sun Monday-Moon Tuesday-Mars Wednesday-Mercury Thursday-Jupiter Friday-Venus Saturday-Saturn

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