Writing CivilizatioN: Literacy and Social Transformation in Early Mesopotamia
Beverly and Raymond Sackler
Art and Archaeology Lectures, 2004
Friday, 16 April, 2004
Thomas. J. Dodd Research Center
University of Connecticut, Storrs

The invention of writing – a revolutionary technology first developed circa 3300 BC – signaled an entirely new level of cultural, intellectual and semiotic advance in human history. Initially prompted in Mesopotamia by the need for complex accounting and bookkeeping, writing was fundamental to the evolution of the intricate networks of social organization we call civilization. Recent archaeological and scholarly investigations, presented here by experts in the field, have opened up new interpretations of the origins of writing and the social contexts through which it evolved.

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The Beverly and Raymond Sackler
Art and Archaeology Lectures Symposium
The Beverly and Raymond Sackler Art and Archaeology Lectures, provide a unique opportunity to explore critical issues in the fields of Archaeology and Art History on the University of Connecticut campus at Storrs. This annual symposium fosters an exchange of ideas between scholars, faculty, and students across the University of Connecticut campus, and throughout the New England area. Dr. Raymond Sackler and his wife Beverly have generously provided funding to make this event possible.

Speaker Schedule

2:00 PM
Introduction by Dr. David G. Woods
Dean of the School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut

2:15 PM
Dr. Jerrold Cooper, Johns Hopkins University
“An Administrative Technology Transformed: The Adaptation of Sumerian Writing for Semitic Languages and the Birth of Cuneiform Literature.”

3:15 PM
Dr. Piotr Steinkeller, Harvard University
“Writing, Kingship, and Political Discourse in Early Mesopotamia.”

4:15 PM
Dr. Harvey Weiss, Yale University
“Bad Timing: The Very Brief Life of the Uruk Civilization.”

5:15 PM
Dr. Robert Englund, University of California, LA
“Testing Late Uruk World Systems: An Examination of the Textual Witnesses.”

Reception

All lectures in the Beverly and Raymond Sackler Art and Archaeology Lecture Series are open to the University community and the greater public. Admission is free and a reception follows. The lectures were held at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, 405 Babbidge Road, on the Storrs campus of the University of Connecticut. For further details, please contact the Department of Art and Art History, University of Connecticut, 860 486-3930.

Beverly and Raymond Sackler
Art and Archaeology Lectures
Art and Archaeology Home
2002
2003: Mesopotamia under fire
2004: Writing Civilization
2005: Egypt
2006: Ancient Near East
2007: The Aztec Empire