Rada Press

Writing—Fascinating Facts

Writing began in Sumeria by scratching a representation on the outside of a hollow clay ball of the tokens within.
With the writing on the outside, there was no need for the tokens inside, so the ball was flattened to a tablet.
It is believed the the first true alphabet was invented by turquoise mine managers in the Sinai.
Turn a capital A upside down and you may see the face of an ox.
The Phoenician and Hebrew word “aleph” meant “ox.”
The world's first “information highway” was the Mediterranean Sea.
Socrates did not want students to learn to write. He said it weakened memory.
Some medieval minstrels could repeat a verse of one thousand lines after hearing it once.
The most famous of the ancient libraries, at Alexandria, built its collection by requiring all ships to surrender all its books. Copies were returned.
Ancient Romans received letters scratched in a layer of wax on a wood tablet. They replied on the same tablet after melting the wax.
Some scholars think the Ten Commandments were written on clay tablets, not stone.
Papyrus was used not only for writing paper, but also to make boats and houses.
In the first universities, professors could not skip classes without student permission, on pain of death.
Many medieval knights could not read or write any better than their horses could. They were illiterate.
The greatest king during the Dark Ages, Charlemagne, could read, but never figured out how to write.