Activa JavaScript para disfrutar de los vídeos de la Mediateca.
1º ESO/MESOPOTAMIA THE DEVELOPMENT OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE - Contenido educativo
Ajuste de pantallaEl ajuste de pantalla se aprecia al ver el vídeo en pantalla completa. Elige la presentación que más te guste:
One day, in the country of Sumer, part of the ancient land of Mesopotamia,
00:00:33
students were hard at work at homes all across the famous city-state of Nippur.
00:00:40
Their teacher had asked them to write a journal about their lives and their country.
00:00:45
Nisaba, one of those students, chose to tell how writing developed in her homeland.
00:00:50
My grandfather says that in the old days, nobody knew how to write.
00:00:56
Writing started when my ancestors needed a way to keep records on what had happened from year to year
00:01:00
Like how much grain each farmer had grown
00:01:07
And how much different people got as their shares
00:01:10
And how many sheep and cattle they had
00:01:14
How many animals died and how many were born
00:01:17
And how much of everything was given to the gods
00:01:20
We started out by drawing little pictures that represented words
00:01:23
Like this picture. It represented a star.
00:01:30
Well, over time, people started writing faster.
00:01:34
And the picture of the star changed to this.
00:01:37
And eventually this.
00:01:40
Now our writing looks more like symbols than pictures.
00:01:42
We combine the symbols to make words and names.
00:01:46
See? Here's how you write Udu's name.
00:01:50
Udu is my pet sheep, by the way.
00:01:53
Our style of writing is called cuneiform.
00:01:56
That means wedge-shaped.
00:01:58
All the symbols are made up of little wedge marks.
00:02:00
That's because we use a tool called a stylus to write.
00:02:05
We cut them from reeds that grow along the river.
00:02:08
We'll never run out of those.
00:02:11
We write on clay tablets.
00:02:15
There's plenty of clay around, too.
00:02:17
All we have to do is pat some clay into a pancake,
00:02:20
then cut a stylus,
00:02:23
press the end of the stylus into the wet clay,
00:02:26
and start writing.
00:02:29
When we're finished, we put the tablet in the sun to dry and harden
00:02:31
Then the tablets last forever
00:02:36
Well, almost
00:02:38
Writing helped make our civilization powerful
00:02:40
Because we could keep records, we could make plans for the future
00:02:44
That's what my dad does
00:02:47
He works for the king
00:02:50
His job is to tell the farmers which fields to plant
00:02:51
and which crops to grow and how much
00:02:55
So we're always sure that we'll have enough food for all of our people.
00:02:58
And enough for the gods, too.
00:03:02
Like my mom always says, I'm a very lucky young woman.
00:03:06
That's because I'm learning how to write.
00:03:11
I go to tablet school, which is called an aduba, to train to be a scribe.
00:03:14
It takes 12 years to learn.
00:03:19
Not many kids get to learn how to write, especially girls.
00:03:23
Mostly there are boys in my class.
00:03:27
We learn our cuneiform characters by writing down proverbs and riddles that the teacher gives us.
00:03:30
Scribes, we call them dubsar, keep records of just about everything important that happens in Sumer.
00:03:36
Like how much tax everyone paid.
00:03:43
When the traders leave and what they take with them.
00:03:47
What the gods tell us to do and on what day and what offerings we make to them.
00:03:50
We've also written down our laws
00:03:55
I was surprised to learn we're the first civilization ever to do that
00:03:58
When they're written down, laws can stay the same for longer
00:04:03
And they take on a life of their own in a way
00:04:07
Some scribes work with the priests in the temples
00:04:09
The priests watch the moon and stars every night
00:04:14
And the scribes write down everything they observe
00:04:17
The priests are looking for signs
00:04:21
that will help them figure out what the gods have in mind.
00:04:23
And also for hints that a flood might be coming
00:04:27
so we can make sure our levees are strong enough
00:04:30
to hold back the water.
00:04:32
Our priests have gotten very good at figuring out
00:04:35
how much time has gone by.
00:04:37
So scribes also write down when things happen.
00:04:40
That way the priests can look for patterns in the past
00:04:43
and try to predict the future.
00:04:46
our civilization couldn't function without scribes there are too many details for anyone
00:04:47
to remember them all but as long as we can write them down we don't have to worry about forgetting
00:04:54
some other things we don't want to forget are our stories and legends we're the first
00:05:00
civilization ever to write our stories down instead of just retelling them to each other
00:05:06
a lot of our best stories are about the gods those stories are called myths
00:05:11
here in my city state of nippur the patron god is called enlil he's the most important god in sumer
00:05:23
each city state has a special god that protects it even though we believe the gods made us humans
00:05:31
so we could take care of them there's a story that tells about the time when the gods had
00:05:38
second thoughts about having created human beings. They decided to send a huge flood
00:05:45
to wash everybody away. But one of the gods didn't agree. He told a man named Ziusudra
00:05:51
put his family and all the animals he could find into a boat. It rained and stormed for
00:05:57
seven days. But Ziusudra was safe in his boat. And that's how humans and animals survived
00:06:05
the great flood. There's another really famous story. It's one of my favorites. It's a very long
00:06:12
story called an epic. It's about a king named Gilgamesh. He's a hero who has a lot of adventures
00:06:22
along with his best friend whose name is Enkidu. Enkidu is a wild man who runs with the animals
00:06:30
but then he meets Gilgamesh and they really hit it off. One day they were looking for adventure
00:06:37
so they decided to travel west to the mountains
00:06:45
high up into the cedar forest
00:06:47
to bring cedar wood back to the city
00:06:49
cedar trees are tall and straight
00:06:51
and the wood lasts a long time
00:06:54
it's perfect for building a palace
00:06:56
but there was another reason for going to the cedar forest
00:06:58
a demon lived there
00:07:01
he was a huge angry demon named Huwawa
00:07:04
Gilgamesh and Enkidu thought they were strong enough
00:07:08
to defeat him in battle
00:07:13
and they wanted to try so the two friends set out they moved so fast a trip that should have
00:07:14
taken six months they made in just two weeks leaving the river valley they climbed higher
00:07:21
and higher the air became crisp and cool and they could hear the sounds of rushing streams and the
00:07:32
wind blowing in the trees soon they reached the place where the cedar trees grew tallest and
00:07:38
straightest. They brought out their axes to start cutting them down. Gilgamesh had just touched the
00:07:44
first tree with his axe when they heard an awful roar. It was Huwawa. The demon took a giant leap
00:07:50
toward them. Why are you cutting my trees, he said. Leave now or you'll be sorry. His face was horrible
00:07:58
and twisted with anger. Well, I would have left right then, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu turned to
00:08:06
face the demon. They called on the sun god to protect them. The sun god liked Gilgamesh so he
00:08:12
sent the 13 great winds to wrap themselves around Huwawa and bring him to the ground. The demon
00:08:20
promised Gilgamesh all the cedar wood he could carry if only he would set him free. But Enkidu
00:08:27
didn't believe a word. Don't let him go he warned Gilgamesh. So with one swift stroke Gilgamesh
00:08:33
killed the demon. Then they were free to choose the finest cedar trees. They cut them into
00:08:40
logs, lashed the logs together into a raft, and floated back down the Euphrates River
00:08:49
to the city. After that, Gilgamesh was even more famous. Tales of his deeds even reached
00:08:54
the ears of the gods. The goddess Inanna heard about Gilgamesh. She was the goddess of love
00:09:02
and she fell in love with him but Gilgamesh brushed her off and was very rude well Inanna
00:09:09
was also the goddess of war and now she was furious she sent the giant bull of heaven to
00:09:17
trample the city as the bull charged toward them Enkidu caught it by the horns and Gilgamesh struck
00:09:25
the beast with his sword and killed it the grateful people threw a huge feast to celebrate
00:09:31
But the gods were not pleased.
00:09:39
Soon afterward, Enkidu became very sick and died.
00:09:42
Gilgamesh was really upset.
00:09:46
He started to search for ways to become immortal so he'd never have to die himself.
00:09:48
He decided to find Ziyasudra, the only man to survive the great flood.
00:09:54
Surely he knew the secret of eternal life.
00:09:59
Gilgamesh wandered into the wild lands
00:10:07
and eventually came to a door leading into a mountain.
00:10:09
It was the entrance to the land of the gods,
00:10:13
guarded by fearsome scorpion men
00:10:17
who allowed him to enter the dark tunnel
00:10:19
where no human had ever set foot.
00:10:21
At the end of the tunnel,
00:10:28
he found the dazzling garden of the gods
00:10:30
where the bushes were hung with jewels.
00:10:32
There, he found a woman who asked Gilgamesh
00:10:36
why he looked so sad i want to be immortal gilgamesh said just enjoy your life the woman
00:10:38
replied eat drink dance love that's what life is for but gilgamesh wasn't convinced so the woman
00:10:47
told him how to cross the ocean and find zia sudra but when gilgamesh finally found him
00:10:57
Ziyasudra couldn't help.
00:11:06
Immortality is a gift of the gods, he said.
00:11:08
It is their secret and theirs alone.
00:11:11
So Gilgamesh came home empty-handed, but wiser.
00:11:16
Now, as he looks at the walls of his city,
00:11:20
the city he spent his whole life building,
00:11:23
he realizes how much better it is to do good work in the time that he has
00:11:25
rather than spend time trying to become immortal.
00:11:29
So that is part of the epic of Gilgamesh.
00:11:33
His story and my journal are alike in a way.
00:11:40
When our stories and thoughts are written down,
00:11:43
other people can read and understand them.
00:11:45
And that's why I think it's so great that we've learned to write.
00:11:48
Because now, our stories and ideas can be remembered forever.
00:11:50
- Subido por:
- Alicia M.
- Licencia:
- Dominio público
- Visualizaciones:
- 160
- Fecha:
- 3 de noviembre de 2020 - 6:21
- Visibilidad:
- Público
- Centro:
- IES LA SENDA
- Duración:
- 11′ 58″
- Relación de aspecto:
- 4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
- Resolución:
- 400x300 píxeles
- Tamaño:
- 32.65 MBytes