The earliest form of Western writing was cuneiform, made by pressing an angular stick of three or four sides into soft clay that was then baked, making these wedge-shaped marks permanent. The next major developments in writing tools were the use of the brush and of the mallet and chisel by the Greeks. Writing found on ancient Greek pottery was done with a small round brush, and early Greek letters were incised on stone with a metal chisel driven by a mallet. Romans, using broad-edged tools, introduced variations in the width of alphabetic marks.
- cuneiform [ˈkju:niifɔ:m] n. 楔形文字
- press [pres] v. 压
- angular [ˈæŋɡjulə] adj. 有角的
- clay [klei] n.黏土
- bake [beik] v. 烧硬
- wedge-shaped [ˈwedʒʃeipt] adj.楔形的
- permanent [ˈpə:mənənt] adj. 持久的
- brush [brʌʃ] n.刷子
- mallet [ˈmælit] n.木槌
- chisel [ˈtʃizl] n.凿子
- pottery [ˈpɔtəri] n.陶器
- incise [inˈsaiz] v. 刻
- variation [ˌvɛəriˈeiʃən] n. 变体
- alphabetic [ˌælfəˈbetik] adj.照字母次序的
