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Q & A: The Bronze Age and Ancient Mesopotamia

 

             Cuneiform - Cuneiform is defined as a system of writing developed by the Sumerians that consisted of wedge-shaped impressions made by a reed stylus on clay tablets. The earliest use of cuneiform writing dates back to early Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C.E. Sumerian writing ranged from concrete objects to stylized signs, which lead to a phonetic system that made the written expression of abstract ideas possible. The history of cuneiform bares a striking resemblance to the Egyptian hieroglyphic. A single symbol could be used to represent a concept, an object, a simple sound or syllable, or to indicate the category of words requiring additional definition. Cuneiform writing was used outside Mesopotamia as well, most notably in Elam and by the Hittites. This style of writing declined in use though after the Persian conquest of Babylonia in 539 B.C. .
             2. Megalithic Age - Megalith is a Greek word meaning "large stone." The first megalithic sites showed up in Neolithic Europe thousands of years before the great pyramids in Egypt were built and are thought to be brought about by the Neolithic peoples of Europe who domesticated animals and brought about farming and agriculture. The "megalithic age" lasted from 4000 B.C.E to 1500 B.C.E., spanning from as far north as Scandinavia and the British Isles to as far south as the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Malta. By far the most famous of the megalithic constructs, is Stonehenge in England, consisting of a series of concentric rings of standing stones, its construction was made up of 80 blue stones weighing in at 4 tons apiece, each of which were transported from their original source 135 miles away. .
             3. Linear A - Linear A is a script used by the Minoans, the ancestors of the ancient Greeks who ruled over part of the Mediterranean and are responsible for many of the myths that the western world clings to. Stories such as Atlantis, and Ovid's Daedalus and Icarus were spawned from these people.


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