Literacy in the Aegean Bronze Age

Paper Summary:

This paper studies the Bronze Age which was one of the great eras of our European past. It describes the widespread adoption of bronze metallurgy across Europe at the time, as well as the many technological advances. It examines the levels of literacy as well as the society and the writings of the Bronze Age scribes. It also discusses "The Linear B Decipherment" and how Evans continued to study it after the Balkan War. Finally, the paper concludes that the effects of writing and literacy on society were great and significant.

From the Paper:

"Anthropologists and archaeologists call certain societies "iron age" or "bronze age." In doing this they recognize that the properties of the main metal used by a society's technology greatly affect both its use and through this the nature of that society. For instance, bronze unlike iron is too soft to be used for ploughing; it is an alloy. Bronze can be smelted at lower temperatures than iron which need specialized supplies of charcoal. All these facts affect societies which use bronze and iron. For example, since bronze cannot be used for ploughing these societies cannot produce in many regions the large agriculture surplus iron societies can; since bronze requires tin bronze age societies had to trade, etc. (Claiborne, 1974) I believe the same parallel exists between the different characteristics of different writing systems and its use as a communication technology in a society."

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