With the exception of the stated year in the flavour text (I'm pretty sure the Sumerian's is older than 2500BC) I like the new Written record.

OK, please tell what's the right year.

You see, that when it comes to recognizablility of pix, it's more common to you or me to see this new Written record, ever since you've done some research on the subject.

But I've shown this image to my girlfriend and she asked "what's that?"
I believe the falvor text is really a nice addition as is the image.

I mean, for the game, the card could be without image. You couldeven play withou cards and just mark what you own, but I prefer both cards, images and flavor text.

p.s. the imagevenueproblem isn;t solved yet, but now I'm at work and ther everythings works out fine.

So now it's only literacy and cloth making to be redrawn

(except for the layout-stuff, i'll work on that, when the images are def)


About literacy. I believe my current image and subject of Lit and written record are more or less the same. I think the subject should change a bit. More about the ability of a nation to write and read instead of the development of writing itself.

Any ideas?

Written Record:
The Sumerian city states rose to power about 5300 BC, the city of Uruk became a power centre with a well developed bureaucracy in about 4500 BC, and the tablet you have drawn is from about 3500 BC. Pick one.

And regarding the recognition factory of the image, I think most people with any knowledge of ancient civilizations (eg most people playing Civ) would recognize it as some form of cuneiform (it's in fact proto-cuneiform), but the flavour text is probably necessary to convey it's importance in the development of a written language.

To be honest, I like the idea of flavour text, and has even thought of adding it to the cards myself, but hadn't gotten around to it, mostly because of the massive research it would have required. So I'm very happy you took the time to do it yourself, so I didn't have to.

no-one can create a expansion like this alone. many hands...

So this is the new Flavor text:

When they appear in the archeological record (about 5300 BC), the Sumerians had developed a system of icons inscribed on clay tablets for keeping temple records.
In this, these were similar to systems for record-keeping, based on symbolic tokens of many sorts, developed in many cultures over the millennia. The table whose picture is shown here shows a more sophisticated use of a numbering system (3500 BC).
These marks in the beginning may only have served to remind the writer of what he had once already known. However, another person could also read the record in the same way. As civilizations become more complex, record-keeping of this kind becomes increasingly important in order to keep commercial transactions straight.

doing some research again on Literacy, and therby passing the step of cuneiform script but focussing on the use of literacy rather than the invention, I came to the original image for Written Record to be used for Literacy.



LITERACY

The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, in modern contexts, the word refers to reading and writing at a level adequate for communication.
The early writing systems were not a sudden invention, they were rather based on ancient traditions of symbol systems, but have many characteristics of writing, so that they may be described as proto-writing. (3000BC)
Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes. The history of the alphabet begins in Ancient Egypt, more than a millennium into the history of writing. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The Papyrus of Ani is a papyrus manuscript written in cursive hieroglyphs and illustrated with color miniatures created in the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. (2000 BC)[/b]


p.s. at my computer, sometimes IMAGEVENUE doesn't work. As soon as it works again, I'll change this big version to imagevenue again

OK. Now i've done Literacy again, I believe the only image to be redone is Trade Empire.

Jonno, I hope you can find some good replacement, otherwise I keep this one.

Tomorrow I'm gonna work on the layou-problems

Regarding Trade Empire:
After doing some research I've found that the only option for the card is in fact the Minoan trade empire. But that doesn't mean that your current drawing is the best one to illustrate that. My latest (and so far greatest) idea was a Minoan ship filled with trade goods, but I can't find any decent image to base it on. The least bad one I've found is this blurry photo of a replica. Adding some cargo on the ship and a busy harbor in the background might do it, but would require you to draw a lot free-handedly, and as I can't quite imagine how it would look like in your drawing style, I can't say for sure.

yeah, that's the problem. Maybe It would. I'd like to try, but when It won;t work, I still keep the current

Of course, if it doesn't work, your current illustration will have to do. It is after all, much better than the poor scan we are using today...

P.S. I assume you mean "if it won't work", not "when it won't work"...

Well, I don't know for you, but English is not my main language. I might have some errors in using it. I try my best but as long as I'm typing here, rather than speaking it, no-one corrects me and I keep making mistakes.

Thanks for noticing.

I döda vinkeln ser du allt jag gör. (which holds mistakes too don't it)

I've been searching a lot for images that could build my composition like you described.

I've seen a lot or ruins of buildings that could be build up again, (even replicas of the knossos palace, not at the coast) but still I don't believe it'll be a good looking image that's also historically right.

ofcourse there are no photos of the ancient world. there are a lot of the modern crete harbours and coasts, but they all look too modern.


I DID find a nice ship of the minoan empire, but that reminded me of the fact that I should redraw Cloth making too. (I forgot)

And I think I'll use that ship for that card.

OK and here it is:



50 CLOTH MAKING

Spinning has probably been around almost as long as people have. Weaving was probably invented much later (6000 BC). Sails have been made from cloth for all of recorded history. Typically sails were made from flax (linen), hemp or cotton in various forms including canvas. The development of cloth making made it possible to make sailed ships which enormously expanded the habitat of civilizations.
In 4000 BC in Egypt, they made long narrow boats powered by many oarsmen. In the next 1000 years, various civilization started using cotton-made sails to help their boats go faster and with less work. Then they made ships large enough to cross the oceans. These ships had sails and oarsmen, and they used them for travel and trade.

And what about this one:




240 MATHEMATICS

From the beginnings of recorded history, the major disciplines within mathematics arose out of the need to do calculations relating quantity, structure, space, and change. The evolution of mathematics might be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions. The Greek Philosopher Pythagoras (580 BC–500 BC) and his students believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality and, through mathematics, everything could be predicted and measured in rhythmic patterns or cycles. Pythagoras is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name.