TRADITIONS AND MEMORIES
Read the following passage carefully:
1 Storytelling, songs, festivals and initiations are just some of the many ways people of the past tried to preserve their traditions and memories. People marked items as a means of passing information to others, this included marking of stone, indents in clay, knotted lengths of cord and scratching plates of lead, copper and wood using iron.
2 Babylonians wrote astronomical observations on bricks of clay. According to the testimony of ancient historian Hellanicus, the first recorded handwritten letter (epistle) was by Persian Queen Atossa, daughter of Syrus, mother of Xerxes, around 500 BC.
3 The leaves of plants and the bark of trees advanced the use of writing. The linden tree was particularly good because the bark could be folded just like a letter. Egyptian papyrus made possible the ancient libraries of Alexandria and Pergamum. The Roman Emperor Claudius developed a new stronger type of cross-layered papyrus which was not damaged by the use of the calamus (reed).
4 Papyrus became so popular a writing material that law was introduced preventing it leaving its country of origin in the East. This caused a shortage of papyrus in the West which led to the introduction of new writing materials, vellum and parchment produced from animal skins. Saxons of the dark ages used the bark of the beech tree, called back whence comes the word book.
5 The style (pen) used in ancient times was made from wood, metal or a bone shaped to a point. A reed was used on papyrus and parchment dipped in Indian/Chinese ink, made from the secretion of cuttlefish. The 5th century saw the use of (goose) quills in Saxon, England.
6 Lead pencils were used in ancient Greece but only as a temporary marker to be rubbed out later. It wasn’t until the 14th century that pencils made from a lead composite became popular and in common use for a writing implement.
7 About the 10th century from the Far East to the West came cotton paper which was in common use by the 12th century. A great advance in writing material came in the 14th century with the introduction of paper made from linen rags. This method of making paper continued for several hundred years.
Read the given questions and write the answer in a sentence.
1. How did people preserve traditions in the past?
2. Why was linden tree good for writing?
3. What kind of paper did the Roman emperor develop?
4. What led to a shortage of papyrus in the West?
5. What other new material did people start using?
6. What was the ink used on papyrus made from?
7. Why were lead pencils used in Greece?
8. What happened in the 14th century?
ANSWERS:
1. People used techniques such as storytelling, songs, festivals and initiations to preserve past traditions.
2. Linden tree’s leaves were just like paper. They could be folded. So this was considered good for writing.
3. The Roman emperor developed a new stronger type of cross-layered papyrus which was damaged by the use of the reed. not
4. The countries in the East refused to share their papyrus with the west that led to the shortage.
5. People started using vellum and parchment produced from the animal skin instead of papyrus.
6. The ink was made from the secretion of cuttlefish.
7. Lead pencils were used only as a temporary marker because it could be rubbed off easily.
8. A great advance in writing material came in the 14th century with the introduction of paper made from linen rags.
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