Category Communication

The writing of ancient Egypt is in the form of pictures called hieroglyphs, which means sacred carvings. They can be seen today mainly in temples, tombs and other sacred monuments. A hieroglyphic symbol is a picture of an object that stands for a word, idea or sound used by the ancient Egyptians. There are over 700 hieroglyphic symbols. For example, the hieroglyph for ‘writing’ or ‘scribe’ is formed as a brush, a pigment bag, and a palette.  For everyday work, scribes used a more joined-up version like handwriting. It is called hieratic, and it was written quickly. Later, an even faster form of writing called demotic was developed.Writing in Egypt was done by scribes, who were trained professionals. They wrote on paper made of papyrus reed, and used thin reed brushes or reed pens to write. These pens were split at the end to hold ink. Making papyrus was a long and laborious process, so student scribes learnt the art of writing on bits of pottery. They were very cheap, and required no special preparation.Scribes were very important people in ancient Egypt, since only a few people could write. They held positions of great honour, and were well rewarded for their work.

We know that early man first started communicating through speech. However, he had no means of storing information, keeping accounts or recording events. The first step towards inventing writing was when man began to draw pictures of things he saw… mostly animals and birds, trees and flowers, the sun and moon.A giant step forward was taken when man learned to make pictures that represented not just an object, but a word in spoken language. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia were the first to do this over 5000 years ago. Later, the ancient Egyptians and Chinese also developed a form of picture writing.The next step was when each picture or sign stood for a single sound instead of for a whole word. This was the beginning of the alphabet. The Mediterranean people, the Hebrews and Phoenicians were the first to use an alphabet. In fact, the word ‘alphabet’ comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, ‘alpha’ and ‘beta’.The Phoenicians were great sea traders, and they needed a simple and efficiency way of keeping accounts. So about 3000 years ago, they developed a system of 22 pictures that stood for the sound of consonants in their language … sound like ‘k’. ‘b’ or ‘f’.  The Greeks later added signs that represented the vowel sounds like ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, and ‘u’. Over 2000 years ago, the Romans developed the Roman alphabet which is still in use. Man first started to write on stones or trees using sharp objects. Later, he used reeds to write on clay tablets. The ancient Egyptians also made a kind of paper from reeds called papyrus. During the middle Ages in Europe, people wrote on parchment which was made by splitting animals skin into thin layers. They used quills made with goose or turkey feathers to write. Paper and ink as we know them today, came much later

You have all heard about marathon races, in which the participants run across very long distances. This game was first held to honour the memory of an ancient Greek soldier, who made a heroic long distance run just to communicate a message. It happened in BC 490. In that year Greece fought with Persia at the town of Marathon. The mighty Persians were miraculously defeated by the comparatively weak Greek army. A Greek soldier named Pheidippides was sent from Marathon to Athens (capital of Greece) to announce the victory. It is said that he ran the entire distance of 40 km without stopping, but moments after proclaiming his message to the city he collapsed dead, from exhaustion.

Have you seen men trying to move a fallen tree or some other heavy object? They will make sounds like ‘Heave! Ho!’ or ‘Yo! Yo!’ According to the ‘Yo Heave Ho’ theory, language arose from the noises made by people who were engaged in a joint effort to do something like lifting a rock or moving a tree trunk.The people who put forward this theory say that as people worked together in a group, their physical effort produced rhythmic grunts, which over time, became chants, and then language.

A slit gong is a type of drum that is hollowed out from a single log. The instrument is played by hitting the log with a stick.The walls of the log are not of the same thickness throughout. Different sounds are produced by hitting the log at different places. Sometimes, the slit gong is placed on a stand so that it vibrates more freely. The bigger the log, the louder the sound. Sometimes, the sound can be heard 8 kms away!  The slit gong was also one of the earliest instruments of communication. Messages sent from one village to another, would often be passed on by the drummer in the second village to another village further away. These ‘talking drums’ could therefore send messages for kilometres and kilometres in every direction.

The txalaparta was an instrument of communication that was used by the Basque people of Spain. Just as the Africans had their talking drums, these people have the txalaparta.The txalaparta was made of wooden planks leaning over logs. When hit with a special stick, it would produce a sound. The tone would vary according to where the instrument was hit. The Basque were thus able to send messages by producing different sounds on the txalaparta. Today, the txalaparta is no longer needed for communication. However, it is still widely used as a musical instrument.