Egypt
Nature (Andrew Robinson)
The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication
Edited by John Baines, John Bennet and Stephen Houston
Equinox: 2008.
Here's an extract of the review:
- New Book: The Shape Of Script
SAR The Shape of Script. How and Why Writing Systems Change Edited by Stephen D. Houston This book builds on earlier projects about the origins and extinctions of script traditions throughout the world in an effort to address the fundamental questions...
- The Rise, Zenith And Fall Of Writing Systems
Antiquity The rise, zenith and fall of writing systems Gordon Whittaker STEPHEN HOUSTON (ed.). The first writing: script invention as history and process. xviii+418 pages, 123 illustrations, 2 tables. First paperback edition 2008 (first published in...
- New Book: Pictograms Or Pseudo Script?
Volume 25: PICTOGRAMS OR PSEUDO SCRIPT? Non-Textual Identity Marks in Practical Use in Ancient Egypt and Elsewhere. Proceedings of a Conference in Leiden, 19-20 December 2006. B.J.J. Haring and O.E. Kaper (eds.) VII, 236 pp.; ISBN 978-90-6258-225-9 €...
- Origins Of Early Writing
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- New Book: Visual And Written Culture In Ancient Egypt
Oxford University Press By John Baines (Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford) Description: A generously illustrated selection of John Baines's influential writings on two core areas of ancient Egyptian civilization: the role of writing,...
Egypt
Book review: The Disappearance of Writing Systems
Nature (Andrew Robinson)
The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication
Edited by John Baines, John Bennet and Stephen Houston
Equinox: 2008.
Here's an extract of the review:
The book came out of the first major conference to focus on the disappearance of ancient writing systems, held in 2004 in Oxford, UK, and organized by the three editors. Baines is professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford and well known for his work on literacy in ancient Egypt. John Bennet of the University of Sheffield, UK, is an expert on the Aegean scripts, notably Linear A and B, and Stephen Houston of Brown University in Rhode Island has been instrumental in the Maya decipherment revolution since the 1980s.
It is a pioneering, fascinating and authoritative book. The 17 contributors cover a surprising range of topics in detail and with comprehensive bibliographies. They discuss familiar lost scripts such as cuneiform, and more obscure examples, including the Kharosthi script of northwest India, the Meroitic script of Nubia in what is now northern Sudan, Aztec and Mexican pictography, the knotted-cord quipus of the Inca empire and its Andean successors, and the Manchu script of China, which fell out of favour with the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912 but was revived in the 1980s. Inevitably there are omissions, most regrettably the much-debated Rongorongo script of Easter Island in the southeastern Pacific, a script that probably flourished for less than 100 years until its rapid disappearance in the mid-nineteenth century.
- New Book: The Shape Of Script
SAR The Shape of Script. How and Why Writing Systems Change Edited by Stephen D. Houston This book builds on earlier projects about the origins and extinctions of script traditions throughout the world in an effort to address the fundamental questions...
- The Rise, Zenith And Fall Of Writing Systems
Antiquity The rise, zenith and fall of writing systems Gordon Whittaker STEPHEN HOUSTON (ed.). The first writing: script invention as history and process. xviii+418 pages, 123 illustrations, 2 tables. First paperback edition 2008 (first published in...
- New Book: Pictograms Or Pseudo Script?
Volume 25: PICTOGRAMS OR PSEUDO SCRIPT? Non-Textual Identity Marks in Practical Use in Ancient Egypt and Elsewhere. Proceedings of a Conference in Leiden, 19-20 December 2006. B.J.J. Haring and O.E. Kaper (eds.) VII, 236 pp.; ISBN 978-90-6258-225-9 €...
- Origins Of Early Writing
Origins of Early Writing Systems It is a really slow news day so this is thrown in for anyone interested in the origins of early writing systems. The Proceedings from the conference Origins of Early Writing Systems have been posted online. But as surprising...
- New Book: Visual And Written Culture In Ancient Egypt
Oxford University Press By John Baines (Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford) Description: A generously illustrated selection of John Baines's influential writings on two core areas of ancient Egyptian civilization: the role of writing,...