Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Literature

The Invention of Writing and the Earliest Literatures

We tend to think of 'literature' as written; however, in the earliest, preliterate societies, cultures recorded history through an oral tradition: one in which elders passed down stories through spoken word. Often the same stories were told over and over to entertain, enlighten, or educate. The main purpose in reiterating these same tales was not to reveal the plot, but instead, the purpose for telling the story was in the telling: repetition, dramatization, and style were all elements that drew listeners around the campfire.

For these early civilizations, the idea of a single individual authoring a given 'text' was unheard of. Oral Literature was passed down through generations, each generation adding to the existing story. In sum, storytelling was not an individual act, but a communal, or community activity.

Sumerian Cuneiform

Our text points out that the earliest written texts were not intended to ‘preserve’ literature or culture; instead, they served much more functional purposes, such as documenting "commercial, administrative, political, and legal information" (4).

As our text further explains, the earliest evidence of written language comes from Mesopotamia (literally, 'between the rivers'). These texts date from 3300 to 2990 B.C.E. (Before the Christian Era). "Characters were drawn into clay with the pointed end of a stick; however, this system was far too simplistic. Later, scribes used the wedge-shaped end of the stick to create more complex symbols. This script that arose was called “Cuneiform” (from the Latin cuneus, meaning ‘wedge’)". These scripts could only be read by experts, called scribes (4-5).

                                   Sumerian Cuneiform (Wikipedia)

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

The term Hieroglyph emerges from the Greek words for ‘sacred’ and ‘carrying’) (5). The Egyptians used Hieroglyphs for public and sacred buildings. As a form of writing, Hieroglyphs developed what Sumerian cuneiform had not: Signs denoting sounds.

                                                Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Wikipedia)

Again, only the professional scribe could decode the hieroglyphs.

The Phoenicians and Greeks

The third and final writing system that is still in current use was developed by the Phoenicians, a Semitic trading people (5). This system spread throughout trade routes across the Mediterranean. This last writing system was the most pervasive and widely used because of its origins among tradesmen, and it was easier to learn. This system was adopted by the Hebrews, and others. 

May I Buy a Vowel?

Our text observes of this final writing system that in light of its pervasiveness and usefulness, it still lacked a notation for vowel sounds. The “absence of notation for the vowels made for ambiguity...We still do not know, for example, what the vowel sounds were in the sacred name of God, often called the Tetragrammaton, because it consists of four letters; in our alphabet the name is written as YHWH. The usual surmise is Jahweh, but for a long time the traditional English language version was Jehovah" (5). It was not until the emergence of the Greeks in the 5th and 6th centuries that a means of representing vowel sounds was developed. 

"Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Literature." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume A. Martin Puchner, et al., Eds. New York: Norton, 2012. 3-6.