一、最早的文字
  托福對兩河流域和古埃及文明研究必然涉及文字的發(fā)展。最早的文字誕生于美索不達米亞（今伊拉克）地區(qū)。文字都是刻在黏土板上，時間可以追溯到公元前3000年，是在蘇美爾人的考古遺跡中發(fā)現(xiàn)的。這些文字使用楔形cuneiform寫在濕的黏土平板上。
  Scholars agree that writing originated somewhere in the Middle East,probably Mesopotamia,around the fourth millennium B.C.E.It is from the great libraries and word-hoards of these ancient lands that the first texts emerged.They were written on damp clay tablets with a wedged(or V-shaped)stick;since the Latin word for wedge is cunea,the texts are called cuneiform.（節(jié)選自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）
  在埃及，文字一般書寫在紙草上。它是紙張的前身，由一種濕地植物制作而成。當時尼羅河兩岸長滿了紙莎（suo）草，埃及人就利用這種草造了一種紙。這種紙質(zhì)量很好，但是像普通的紙一樣脆弱。
  The ancient Egyptians invented a different way of writing and a new substance to write on—papyrus,a precursor of paper,made from a wetland plant.（節(jié)選自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）
  不過美索不達米亞的河邊并沒有紙莎草，但當?shù)赜胁诲e的粘土，所以泥板成為了標準的書寫材料。雖然泥板很笨重，但對于考古學家來說它有一個珍貴的優(yōu)點：保存持久。比如火對紙莎草或其它書寫材料是致命的，但是對于泥板來說，火只會把它燒得更堅硬，從而使其能保存更持久。所以當征服者把美索不達米亞宮殿燒為灰燼時，反而使得其中的泥板保存了下來。
  Mesopotamia's rivers boasted no such useful reeds,but its land did provide good clay,and as a consequence the clay tablet became the standard material.Though clumsy and bulky it has a virtue dear to archaeologists:it is durable.Fire,for example,which is death to papyrus paper or other writing materials such as leather and wood,simply bakes it hard,thereby making it even more durable.（節(jié)選自TPO 46-1 The Origins of Writing）
  二、早期文字的種類
  楔形文字cuneiform
  楔形文字的書寫持續(xù)了大約3000年，在蘇美爾、阿卡德、亞述、尼尼微和巴比倫都有大量的傳承，在以今天的伊拉克、敘利亞和伊朗西部為代表的地區(qū)，它為我們保留了15種語言。最古老的楔形文字記載了收稅人和商人的交易，城市社會的買賣單據(jù)。他們記錄了谷物、山羊和房地產(chǎn)之類的內(nèi)容。
  Cuneiform writing lasted for some 3,000 years,in a vast line of succession that ran through Sumer,Akkad,Assyria,Nineveh,and Babylon,and preserved for us fifteen languages in an area represented by modern-day Iraq,Syria,and western Iran.The oldest cuneiform texts recorded the transactions of tax collectors and merchants,the receipts and bills of sale of an urban society.They had to do with things like grain,goats,and real estate.（節(jié)選自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）
  象形文字hieroglyphic
  希臘人對這種文字有一個特殊的名字:象形文字，字面意思是“神圣的文字”。他們認為，這是適合神的語言，這就解釋了為什么它被刻在金字塔和其他宗教建筑的墻上。
  The Greeks had a special name for this writing:hieroglyphic,literally"sacred writing."This,they thought,was language fit for the gods,which explains why it was carved on walls of pyramids and other religious structures.Perhaps hieroglyphics are Egypt's great contribution to the history of writing:hieroglyphic writing,in use from 3100 B.C.E.until 394 C.E.,resulted in the creation of texts that were fine art as well as communication.Egypt gave us the tradition of the scribe not just as an educated person but as artist and calligrapher.（節(jié)選自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）
  三、文字的作用
  最早的泥板上的內(nèi)容是一些簡單的商品符號——動物、罐子、籃子等等?？雌饋?，寫作最初是一種原始的簿記形式。它的使用范圍很快擴大到記錄日常生活中涉及的眾多事物和行為，從簡單的商品存貨到復雜的規(guī)章制度
  The contents of the earliest clay tablets are simple notations of numbers of commodities—animals,jars,baskets,etc.Writing,it would appear,started as a primitive form of bookkeeping.Its use soon widened to document the multitudinous things and acts that are involved in daily life,from simple inventories of commodities to complicated governmental rules and regulations.（節(jié)選自TPO 46-1 The Origins of Writing）
  大量的楔形文字是關(guān)于科學、天文學、醫(yī)學和數(shù)學，一些含了非常精確的數(shù)據(jù)。
  Cuneiform texts on science,astronomy,medicine,and mathematics abound,some offering astoundingly precise data.（節(jié)選自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）