Part of: The Onassis Library opens its doors to the schools

The History of Writing

Dates

Prices

Free admission

Location

Onassis Library

Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
Monday-Friday
Time
09:00
Venue
Onassis Library (Amalias 56, Athens)

Information

Addressed to

5th and 6th grade students

Dates

November 2019 - May 2020

Duration

3 hours

Cost

Free

Application and selection process: Applications should be send to education@onassis.org by 15 October, 2019. Responses will be given by 1 November, 2019.

A chisel? Or a quill pen? What’s your favorite tool to write with? The history of writing is the history of humankind itself, which has always sought ways to communicate. Long before emails, SMS, emoticons, and messaging apps, people drew symbols and created different systems for writing their messages. Discover them!

Would you like to see your name written in Linear B? Throughout history, humans have used different methods to communicate in writing, including paintings, symbols, systems, and words.

The Phoenician alphabet, the Rosetta Stone, cave paintings, and many other inventions and writings systems will prove to you and your classmates that humans have always sought to communicate. In this workshop, you’ll get to examine quill pens, chisels, and strange inks, and will become a calligrapher yourself, creating your own rare manuscript with pens, brushes, and real ink on aged paper, as if you were living in a bygone era.

Photo © Yiannis Soulis

Credits

  • Geologist, MSc, Museum educator

    Nikolas Tsoukalas

  • Graphic designer

    Nikolas Kouniniotis

Conditions

Each school group that is selected will take part in one 3-hour workshop.