Chapter Three: The First Writing / 第三章：最早的文字

The Egyptians埃及人/ɪˈdʒɪpʃənz/ were among the earliest最早的/ˈɜːrliɪst/ people人们/ˈpiːpəl/ to use writing文字，书写/ˈraɪtɪŋ/. Why do you think it's important重要的/ɪmˈpɔːrtənt/ to be able to write things down?

Suppose I write a message信息，消息/ˈmesɪdʒ/ for you on a piece of paper纸/ˈpeɪpər/ and put it on the table桌子/ˈteɪbəl/. Then I leave离开/liːv/ the room. If you look at the paper, you'll know what I wanted to say to you—even though I'm nowhere around.

That's one reason原因/ˈriːzən/ writing is important. Once the Egyptians learned to write things down, they could send messages信息（复数）/ˈmesɪdʒɪz/ from one part of the kingdom王国/ˈkɪŋdəm/ to another.

What if you found my message a year年/jɪər/ after I wrote it? You would still be able to "hear" my words话语，文字/wɜːrdz/—even though I had written them down long before. That's the second reason that writing is so important.

The Egyptians could write down the important events事件/ɪˈvents/ that happened during their lifetimes一生/ˈlaɪfˌtaɪmz/, and leave them for their grandchildren孙子孙女/ˈɡrænˌtʃɪldrən/ and great-grandchildren to read.

The Egyptians used pictures图片，图画/ˈpɪktʃərz/ to write with. We call these pictures hieroglyphs象形文字/ˈhaɪrəˌɡlɪfs/. The pictures stood for certain words词语/wɜːrdz/. The Egyptians used to carve雕刻/kɑːrv/ these hieroglyphs into stone石头/stoʊn/ tablets石板/ˈtæblɪts/.

The stone tablets lasted for a very long time时间/taɪm/—but they were heavy重的/ˈhevi/ to carry, and carving the pictures into stone took weeks几个星期/wiːks/ of work.

Another country国家/ˈkʌntri/ near Egypt had a better idea. They carved their pictures into tablets of wet clay黏土/kleɪ/. This country was called Sumer苏美尔/ˈsuːmər/.

Sumer was in the Fertile Crescent肥沃月弯/ˈfɜːrtəl ˈkresənt/, between the Tigris底格里斯河/ˈtaɪɡrɪs/ and Euphrates幼发拉底河/juːˈfreɪtiːz/ rivers. This place between the rivers is called "Mesopotamia美索不达米亚/ˌmesəpəˈteɪmiə/."

The word Mesopotamia means "between two rivers河流/ˈrɪvərz/." Do you know what the word hippopotamus河马/ˌhɪpəˈpɑːtəməs/ means? Hippo means "horse," and potamus means "river." A hippopotamus is a "river-horse"!

The Sumerian苏美尔人的/suːˈmɪriən/ picture-writing was called cuneiform楔形文字/ˈkjuːnɪˌfɔːrm/. Because the Sumerians lived between two rivers, they had plenty of damp clay.

Instead of carving their cuneiform onto stone, they would mold塑造/moʊld/ this clay into square正方形的/skwer/ tablets. Then, while the clay was still wet, they would use a sharp knife刀/naɪf/ or stick to make the cuneiform marks.

After the message was carved into the clay, the Sumerians could either wipe it out and write another message (if the message was something unimportant, like a grocery list购物清单/ˈɡroʊsəri lɪst/), or else bake烘烤/beɪk/ the clay until it was hard.

Writing in clay is easier更容易的/ˈiːziər/ than carving stone. But even clay tablets can be heavy. And clay tablets are thick厚的/θɪk/; if you want to store储存/stɔːr/ a whole lot of them, you need a lot of space—whole buildings建筑物/ˈbɪldɪŋz/ full of rooms for even a small library图书馆/ˈlaɪˌbreri/.

After several hundred years, the Egyptians came up with an idea that was even better than clay. They learned how to make paper and ink墨水/ɪŋk/.

Egyptian paper was made from reeds芦苇/riːdz/ that grew along the banks of the Nile尼罗河/naɪl/. The Egyptians learned how to soften软化/ˈsɔːfən/ and mash捣碎/mæʃ/ them into a pulp纸浆/pʌlp/.

They would then spread the pulp out to dry in thin sheets薄片/ʃiːts/. These sheets became reed-paper, which the Egyptians called papyrus纸莎草纸/pəˈpaɪrəs/. It was much easier to write on paper than on clay or stone.

Paper was also easier to carry around; you could fold折叠/foʊld/ it up and put it into your pocket口袋/ˈpɑːkɪt/, or roll it up into a scroll卷轴/skroʊl/. And paper took up less room.

When they started using paper, the Egyptians thought they had found the best way to keep records记录/ˈrekərdz/.

But paper has a problem问题/ˈprɑːbləm/. When paper gets wet, the ink on it dissolves溶解/dɪˈzɑːlvz/ and the paper falls apart. And paper also starts to fall apart over time.

The older paper gets, the more likely it is to crack up and turn into dust灰尘/dʌst/. We know a lot about Egyptian history历史/ˈhɪstəri/ from the times that Egyptians wrote on stone, because those stone writings have lasted for centuries几个世纪/ˈsentʃəriz/—from Egyptian days until now.

We know a lot about Sumerian history too, because clay tablets last for a long time if they've been baked hard. But we don't know a great deal about what happened in Egypt after the Egyptians started writing on paper, because in the thousands of years that have gone by, the paper writings of the Egyptians have crumbled碎裂/ˈkrʌmbəld/ and disappeared消失/ˌdɪsəˈpɪrd/.

Note to Parent: The Sumerians and Egyptians used cuneiform from about 3200 BC/BCE, with Sumerian writing developing slightly earlier.