#4 Other Online Museums, Mesopotamia timelines and article searches

Written communication evolved from the need of early civilizations such as the Sumerians of Ancient Mesopotamia to communicate, organize and document their daily lives. The earliest forms of written communication were probably tokens that were in picture format and attached to sacks of goods. It took two centuries for these pictures to then evolve into a pictographic language as their daily lives became more involved and detailed.

Utilising both google, clusty web search engines and Answer.com to obtain an understanding of terminology and events, I discovered The British Museum - Mesopotamia website. This site produced an excellent insight into the time line of events of the technologies that were developed by the civilizations inhabiting Ancient Mesopotamia. This site and also The Oriental Institute Museum as part of the University of Chicago that includes information about Mesopotamian facts, history, clay tablets images and associated teacher resources.

I also commenced research at Swinburne library's supersearch facility to locate journal articles that maybe helpful. Some titles that I have found useful are so far are -

• 'Chicken scratches' written in clay yield their secrets by Marion Steinmann
• Written in clay by Karen E. Hong
• Information technology, 2500B.C. by P. Morrison
• From ancient Mesopotamia to a modern basement by Ewa Wasilewska

I have been truly amazed with the volume of reference material that I have obtained so far. I am beginning to feel like I have information overload and need to make decisions about which resources will help address my topic the best. The web offers so many choices, I am coming to the realization that I must become more selective and to stay focussed!

[Photo Image http://www.flickr.com/photos/verbeeldingskr8/3638834128/ :

Flickr Creative Commons accessed 14/10/09]

#1 Introduction

As I pondered my chosen topic 'Clay Tablets As Library Materials', I decided my first step would be to gain some basic knowledge that would be suitable as an introduction for my research and to help organize a plan of direction. I decided to browse my P-12 college and local public library book resources to answer some what, how, where, who and why type questions to gain a general introduction to the topic before searching electronically. Some of my new found knowledge follows.

Mesopotamia was a country located in what was then referred to as the Ancient Near East region. Ancient Mesopotamia comprises of most of Iraq, and small parts of both Syria and south east Turkey, countries that we know today. It was a country of many 'firsts'. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of the first known civilization, cities, the invention of the wheel, agriculture and irrigation, all mechanisms that ensured the survival of a population and their culture at that time.

It was in Sumer, Southern Mesopotamia (later known as Babylonia), that a nomadic people settled in a fertile area bounded by the two river systems, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Archaeological finds have proven that during the third millennium (approximately 3500BC), that it was these inhabitants that were the inventors of the earliest forms of writing which was then followed later by mathematics. This map shows the northern and southern regions of Ancient Mesopotamia called Assyria and Akkad Sumer. It is in the southern region that a nomadic people settled and were known as the Sumerians.

Map image - The Greco-Roman world: the east (Casson, L 2002, Libraries in the Ancient World, Yale University Press, New Haven)