Miles of Aisles

Today I found myself dancing down the library aisles rocking out to my iPod while searching for literature on the history of books. I spent a few hours wandering the shelves searching for the perfect resources. It was quite the adventure!

Dear Diary...

In keeping with the last few weeks, I have decided to again continue research into the history of book writing.  While I was researching, I had the idea that journal writing must have been an interesting topic in the past; with books and paper so hard to come by, I couldn't imagine that people would just go to the store and buy a blank notebook, so I started to do some digging.  This week's post is the results.

To Write or Not to Write

So for this post I'm going to deviate a little bit from the civilization I've been covering, but I think it's appropriate given what we've been talking about in class. (But the writing that I'm talking about was written in reformed Egyptian so its kinda almost related)

Today in class we touched briefly on the characteristics of the civilizations that some of us have been studying that did not have written languages. It's difficult to determine why they didn't develop such a system, but the effects of that lack of development are blatantly obvious. We know very little about those without a writing system, and their societies do no appear as advanced as their writing counterparts, (In most cases, barring the Incas who appear to be an exception to the rule). The Book of Mormon gives a perfect example of the different paths civilizations might take depending on their development  (or use) of a written language. Keep reading after the jump to find out more!

Writing- It's Kind of a Big Deal

So I've basically given up on finding new information on the ancient Kush language... As much as I want to find out more about them, for the time being it appears that they will remain one of the great mysteries of ancient history, at least until some remarkable discovery is made in The Sudan. Sadly the prospects of that seem rather slim because of the more pressing issues they face like slavery, civil war, drought, and genocide, which puts archeological efforts and decoding a dead language pretty much on the back burner.

But as you've probably already guessed, I've found out some interesting stuff about Ancient Egyptian writing! Follow after the jump to find out what!

Romances

I’ve found something I really enjoy to write about this week, and I personally feel like it’s germane to the topic. Like many in this class, I’m sure, I love reading.  It’s one of my favorite pastimes; I can easily spend hours curled up with a good book.  Who doesn’t look forward to cold, stormy winter days when you can sit by the fire and read à volonté?  Okay…so maybe I’m a little unique.  Still, I’m betting most of us love a good book.

I'm reading a book, that's what I'm doing!
credit to: xkcd.com 

Now You're Speakin' My Language... Well, Not Really...

As I'm sure I've made abundantly clear in my previous blog posts on the Kush civilization, no has yet been able to decipher their ancient written language. So instead of making a blog post about nothing, I decided I would turn to another ancient African people whose language has been decoded. Luckily one such civilization, arguably one of the most studied in history, lied just to the north of Kush, and their cultures and language systems were closely linked in many respects - I'm talking of course, about the Egyptians. As we're shifting to the study of written knowledge and educational systems, I think the Egypt is a very interesting civilization to scrutinize because we have uncovered so much evidence about their educational system.