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Writing on Writing Materials (Part-2)

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  Some unfinished business with the Greeks and Romans In the first part, I wrote about the writing materials used by the ancient Greeks. But what I did not mention was their very first writing material, simply because, I did not know about it at that time. It was only after publishing the blog I acquired the information, and therefore decided to share it with you in this article. As it seems, the Mycenaean-Greeks, who were the earliest Greek-speaking people, started writing on the same material which the Mesopotamians used to write on. Yes, correct – clay tablets! It is also worth mentioning that their script was very distinctive from the present Greek script we all recognise. The researchers named this script ‘Linear B’ (which, in my opinion, is a very insipid name). The earliest examples of such clay tablets come from 1450 BCE. Unfortunately, just about three and a half centuries later (around 1100 BCE), came the Greek dark age, when the skill of writing was almost forgotten. B
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Writing on Writing Materials (Part-1)

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[1] About 5,500 years ago, ‘history’ began. In other words, Man developed writing system - a marvellous technology which allowed him to record information, ideas and discoveries. He was no longer needed to depend only on his memory. He had found the way to visually represent his words in the form of signs. These ‘written’ words could now be used for communication across long distances and, most importantly, passed on to the future generation with unprecedented reliability. The invention of writing system was, indisputably, one of the greatest achievements of humanity. [2] To me, the very process of writing is fascinating. However, what captivates me the most are the tools or materials involved in this process. Through this series of blogs, I intend to share whatever I know about the evolution of writing materials throughout the course of history, in a concise manner. This particular blog (i.e., part-1 of the series), is about the writing materials used in the ancient region known
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Location: Delhi, India
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