This week students had the opportunity to live as scribes in Ancient Sumer by trying their hand at the written system called cuneiform.
Here are some photos from the last few days:
Some students noted that this was a difficult task and realized that scribes must have studied the craft for a very long time to be proficient. One student who is left-handed found it hard to make the indentations look as they did on the paper. All students benefited from the tactile aspect of the activity and appreciated the chance to try out this earliest form of the written language.
Here are some photos from the last few days:
We watched a video about the life of a scribe and how they used a stylus to make indentations in the clay. Students then received a chopstick to use as a stylus, a piece of clay, and two papers. One paper had numbers and the other letters. They were then able to flatten the clay and "write" whatever they wanted.
