History of printing – movable type
History of printing: Wong Jei's block-printed scroll, 868 AD Writing by hand For four thousand years after the invention of writing in Iraq, all writing was done by hand, a character at [...]
27
07, 2017
27
07, 2017
Languages and Writing
Cuneiform tablet from West Asia Most people in the ancient Mediterranean and West Asian areas spoke languages that divided into two groups. One language group is Indo-European and the other group is Semitic. In southern [...]
27
07, 2017
Early Japanese Literature
Early Japanese literature: A copy of the Kojiki from the 1300s AD Printing and paper in Japan Just after 700 AD, the Japanese Empress Genmei ordered her staff to write and publish Japan's [...]
25
07, 2017
Arabic language and literature
Arabic language: Sabataean writing Where did Arabic come from? Arabic is in the Semitic language group. Semitic languages seem to have gotten started before the beginning of writing. That would be before [...]
21
07, 2017
What is Hinduism? A religion of India
Hinduism: Arjuna fighting Karna, with Krishna as his charioteer (Duttapara Temple, ca. 1500s AD) What does "Hindu" mean? The word Hindu comes from the river Indus. So it just means [...]
20
07, 2017
Jataka Tales – Buddhist stories from India
Jataka tales: the Crab and the Crane (Thanks to Alan Murphy) What are Jataka tales? During the 300s BC, when the Mauryan Empire was first uniting northern India, Buddhist monks and nuns in India began to tell stories [...]
20
07, 2017
Stories of ancient India
Harappan Seal One of the earliest known writing systems came from India, probably around 2500 BC. Unfortunately, nobody can read the Harappan writing yet. But we know people were using this writing to [...]
20
07, 2017
Mauryan India – history of India
These punch-marked silver coins might be from the time of Chandragupta I, in Mauryan India. Chandragupta I Alexander went back to Babylon in 324 BC. Then a man named Chandragupta overthrew [...]
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07, 2017
How did ancient Greek people write numbers?
How the alphabet evolved People in ancient Greece had a variety of different ways of writing down numbers, but none of them was very efficient. (And of course different Greek city-states used somewhat [...]
10
07, 2017
Who was Homer? Greek epic literature
Cup by Sophilos, showing a race from the Iliad by Homer (as the inscription says - Athens, ca. 570 BC) Why is Homer important? To the classical Greeks, Homer's epics [...]
