Ancient writing instruments were used to document life, history and culture.
From pencils to fountain pens, our modern writing instruments have evolved substantially from tools used by cavemen to etch images on walls. Invented in 1938, Laszlo Jozsef Biro impressed contemporaries with his ballpoint pen boasting an internal ink reservoir. Now indispensable in most offices and homes, it is easy to forget the long and experimental history of writing instruments.
Sharpened Stones
Among the oldest documented writing instruments, sharpened stones were used by prehistoric people to engrave symbols inside caves and on rocks. The "Times of India" notes that excavations of Indian caves in 2009 have revealed petroglyphs from as early as the Mesolithic period, dated from 5,000 to 3,000 years ago. Rock materials typically manufactured into tools included obsidian, owing to its tendency to break into sharp pieces, along with chalcedony and quartzite. In addition to functioning as writing instruments, stone tools marked a revolution in prehistoric technology, used by cavemen to hunt and as weaponry.
Reeds
Writing was an essential technique used by the ancient Egyptians to document their religion and politics. Ancient Egypt.co.uk notes that they produced writing scrolls from a native reed known as papyrus, which would be stripped, compounded and dried. These scrolls were used to write several scripts, including hieroglyphics. To write on scrolls, scribes also used reeds, which would be cut at the end to produce a tip. Writing involved dampening the tip with water and coating it in pigment.
Wax
Wax tablets were commonly used by the Romans in schools or to write messages. These were often fashioned out of thick pieces of wood, carved into a circular shape and covered with wax. The benefit of using wax was that it could be softened to erase mistakes or use again. The BBC notes that the Romans wrote on tablets using a stylus, a thin metal writing instrument similar to a pen.
Quill Pens
A typical writing instrument of the 18th century, quill pens were essentially stiff-spined flight feathers. The Jane Austen Society of Australia notes that the most robust feathers were taken from turkeys, swans or geese, while raven and crow feathers were used for fine writing. To construct quills, feathers would be cut to a length of 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch and stripped of feathers closest to the tip. In some cases, feathers would be entirely removed to produce an instrument similar in appearance to a stick. For those scribing with the right hand, quills would be developed from left wing feathers, while left-handed writers would use feathers from the right wing.
Related posts
First used by medieval scribes, the quill is still used as a writing implement.Long before felt tips and ballpoints hung in multi-colored rows in office supply stores, medieval scribes were gettin...
Quill pens must be sharpened regularly.During the Colonial period of U.S. history -- the years between the first European settlements and preceding independence in 1776 -- immigrants brought with...
Themed writing assignments enhance writing skills.The Thanksgiving holiday provides inspiration for elementary writing activities. Regular writing activities help improve the students' writing ski...
Do some Thanksgiving writing activities with your first-graders.First-graders are just learning write words and put together sentences. In fact, because Thanksgiving is near the start of the schoo...
You can make an old-fashioned quill pen using a real feather.One of the earliest writing implements in Western cultures is the writing quill. For more than 1,000 years, people wrote documents and...
