Quotes

"Thinking through what it took to even invent a script in the first place was often mind-blowing. It is difficult to conceptualize what a world without writing is like since I have always had it around me (not to mention that we can’t find any firsthand accounts about it, since the people couldn’t record what their lives were like). Being able to see, especially in the cuneiform unit, how the first writing systems developed out of nothing but necessity and a little creativity was really cool. I especially liked being able to see all the trial and error involved, like how the Sumerians had to adapt out of representing a handful of whole words to a logographic script so that the number of signs wouldn’t be so overwhelming, or how they went from dragging their styluses to draw signs in the clay to the easier strategy of impressing wedge-shaped lines." Jayne Mathis, Spring 2021