一、最早的文字
  托福对两河流域和古埃及文明研究必然涉及文字的发展。最早的文字诞生于美索不达米亚（今伊拉克）地区。文字都是刻在黏土板上，时间可以追溯到公元前3000年，是在苏美尔人的考古遗迹中发现的。这些文字使用楔形cuneiform写在湿的黏土平板上。
  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.（节选自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）
  在埃及，文字一般书写在纸草上。它是纸张的前身，由一种湿地植物制作而成。当时尼罗河两岸长满了纸莎（suo）草，埃及人就利用这种草造了一种纸。这种纸质量很好，但是像普通的纸一样脆弱。
  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.（节选自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）
  不过美索不达米亚的河边并没有纸莎草，但当地有不错的粘土，所以泥板成为了标准的书写材料。虽然泥板很笨重，但对于考古学家来说它有一个珍贵的优点：保存持久。比如火对纸莎草或其它书写材料是致命的，但是对于泥板来说，火只会把它烧得更坚硬，从而使其能保存更持久。所以当征服者把美索不达米亚宫殿烧为灰烬时，反而使得其中的泥板保存了下来。
  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.（节选自TPO 46-1 The Origins of Writing）
  二、早期文字的种类
  楔形文字cuneiform
  楔形文字的书写持续了大约3000年，在苏美尔、阿卡德、亚述、尼尼微和巴比伦都有大量的传承，在以今天的伊拉克、叙利亚和伊朗西部为代表的地区，它为我们保留了15种语言。最古老的楔形文字记载了收税人和商人的交易，城市社会的买卖单据。他们记录了谷物、山羊和房地产之类的内容。
  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.（节选自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）
  象形文字hieroglyphic
  希腊人对这种文字有一个特殊的名字:象形文字，字面意思是“神圣的文字”。他们认为，这是适合神的语言，这就解释了为什么它被刻在金字塔和其他宗教建筑的墙上。
  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.（节选自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）
  三、文字的作用
  最早的泥板上的内容是一些简单的商品符号——动物、罐子、篮子等等。看起来，写作最初是一种原始的簿记形式。它的使用范围很快扩大到记录日常生活中涉及的众多事物和行为，从简单的商品存货到复杂的政府规章制度
  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.（节选自TPO 46-1 The Origins of Writing）
  大量的楔形文字是关于科学、天文学、医学和数学，一些含了非常精确的数据。
  Cuneiform texts on science,astronomy,medicine,and mathematics abound,some offering astoundingly precise data.（节选自TPO 39-1 Early Writing Systems）