Middle School
Worksheets
A Brief History of Letter Writing
What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call.--- Liz Carpenter
Letter writing has a history that goes back thousands of years. A few surviving letters suggest it was common practice to write letters to the dead in ancient Egypt. Some of these letters were written on bowls found in Egyptian tombs. The letters often asked for help from the departed with some problem the writers were having.
The Bible includes a series of letters written by Paul the Apostle. His letters are called epistles. They are an integral part of the New Testament. Letters are considered a primary source when looking at a particular period in history.
