Resource person: Pam Petrie

Description:

Writing is unquestionably one of the most important inventions of the human species, allowing for communication over time, space, and culture. How did writing come about? Where and how did the earliest writers practice their craft? How did we get from complicated hieroglyphic and cuneiform writing systems with thousands of characters to the simplicity of the alphabet? In this brief course, we will trace writing’s origins and development from the clay counters of the Neolithic Age of the Near East to the earliest accounting systems and the development of literary texts of Mesopotamia. We will compare this to other experiments with writing systems elsewhere in the world and how they evolved into the simplicity of the modern alphabet.

Instructor: Mitchell Allen, PhD (UCLA), is a research associate in archaeology at UC Berkeley. He has taught archaeology for over 20 years, and has done fieldwork in Israel, Afghanistan, and California.

Mandatory membership(s):

• Volunteer Membership 2026-27
• Life Membership
• Individual Membership 2026-27

Available spots: 44 out of 44

Price: $20.00 Taxes not included

Prerequisites: None

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