3 Ancient Ways To Read a Book That Made Our Ancestors (All-Time) Geniuses
Your diet is not what you eat but what you read.
Ancient people had weird ways of reading, for example:
- Reading time: sundial
- Reading a book: scrolls and pages
Reading was a luxury back then. Most town’s people would gather around sundials to figure out how shadow works. Some even named it Dark Magic. The oldest languages are Latin and Greek. Ninety (90%) of Greek and Roman empires were illiterate, as reading wasn’t an honor given to everyone.
At that time, reading and writing was “freedom of speech,” which could expose the fat secrets of rulers.
Different people had different writing mediums, which led to changes in civilization.
According to Bunchcreative.com:
- Mesopotamian rulers used clay tablets 5000 years ago. After making marks with a stylus, wet clay tablets were dried.
- Ancient Egyptians started writing on a paper plant called Cyperus Papyrus.
Some traditions lasted, while some failed.
Fat rulers and notable wealthy families learned fast and had their secrets for recognizing words.
Below are three ways ancient-wealthy people made the most out of books and remained informed.
1. Screaming
Reading out loud with punctuation first started in 200 BCE.
Rulers and highly notable people in the 11–12th centuries would read scripts and scroll aloud in front of people.
Unlike today when we read silently, reading aloud was the only form of reading.
Not everybody had the guts to stand in front of people, adjust their posture and speak aloud. This means that public speaking is as ancient as we can imagine.
Ancient people started realizing the power of words. According to bookriot.com:
“The oldest name in literature, the Akkadian princess and High Priestess Enheduanna, started a tradition of signing her work with her name. Some writers even started mentioning the ‘dear reader’ headnote at the beginning.”
We’re the descent of the same people who enjoy stage readings. Today, reading focuses on punctuation, grammar, and tone.
How to copy ancient people?
The royal courts and monasteries were wisdom centers in the 11–12 centuries.
Notable authors would hop upstage and divulge their stories. After centuries, acts melted into theatre, and theatre into movies. The secret to public speaking and storytelling?
- Maintain posture: practice a nice gentle pose that makes you look bold and rightful.
- Practice: stay in front of the mirror and start speaking. Keep your head up while you talk.
- Maintaining the tone: Charles Dickens was famous for his speech and drifting people into deep laughter and sobs. He made connections with the people.
2. Learning It
In the absence of apps and smart gadgets, ancient people memorized words.
In the olden times, people wanted to learn many languages. The only choice was to learn by heart.
Why?
Nationalgeographic.com says:
“Nearly two million years ago, homo species started to make stone tools. Humans began communicating and writing their recipes in illustrations to protect their lineage from getting killed.”
This helped their generation survive wars and protect their brood. Older adults remembered things by heart when there was no place to keep a record.
My grandfather had a similar strategy. In 1910, he learned religious verses. Back then, the person who could learn by heart would speak in front of the whole family.
Teachers use a similar strategy at schools, making us learn poems and verses. It started as a survival instinct and later became a school task worth grading.
How to copy ancient people?
Ancient people believed things needed to be learned.
For example, some things are:
- Survival techniques
- Body language
- Reading interacts
- Intuition
If we know how and when to use these properly, we can be our saviors 90% of the time. Learn the right things.
Rather than learning songs, learn these techniques.
Always remember the “first things first principle.”
If you know the recipe to save yourself, only then would you be able to make the most out of learning songs and remembering the names of your favored Netflix shows.
If you have life, you have the world.
3. Bake Your Imagination
According to Egypttoday.com:
“Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered in the early 19th century.”
Hieroglyphs are a unique language. Today, comic books find inspiration from the early Hieroglyphs.
Ancient Egyptians used symbols to make illustrations. They believed the problem/story is well understood through imagination.
Thing it this way:
When you were a toddler, you must have loved the thought of flying one day with wings attached to your side. As you grow up, you realize it is absurd, and we must fall. Age plays a role in the development of logic (a sense).
That’s where the Egyptian symbols come into play.
As Egyptuncovered.com believes:
“The first heirlooms were used to record important events like wars and stories about Gods and pharoahs. But after that time, it became pretty standard among oridnary people.”
The purpose was to use pictorial representation to the fullest.
How to copy ancient people?
Hieroglyphs have over 700 symbols.
These symbols represent sounds; some are used to make alphabet letters.
To use that in your reading, do this:
1. Draw: summarize your story into a painting or drawing after reading a book. This way, you can make a pictorial summary.
2. Make your shortcuts: (I used this personally.) When some words made it hard to reach my mind, I would designate a whole new letter to remember a sentence.
Use some types of symbols below to indicate hard-learning words/actions:
- ‱: form a routine
- ☢: get some air
- ⌖: remember the ultimate goal
- ♧: visit a park
- ╔: sleep to energize
- ◍: make a to-do list.
Final Thoughts:
Mother, bark, and spit are 15,000 years old words.
The oldest the technique, the more we know it’s like a “mutual routine” coming back from generations
We must know what our ancestors did to go with our natural flow. Don’t oppose it.
Find your natural flair or maybe a generational technique that our ancestors used. Three of them are above!
References: Bookriot.com and Seeker.com.
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