Egypt
Antiquity
The rise, zenith and fall of writing systems
Gordon Whittaker
- 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...
- New Book: Visible Language
Oriental Institute Thanks to Rhio Barnhart for the above link. Available as a PDF download. 12.33MB OIMP 32. Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond Writing, the ability to make language visible and permanent, is...
- 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...
- 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,...
Egypt
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 hardback in 2004, reprinted in 2005). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 978-0-521-83861-0 hardback £59 & $105; 978-0-521-72826-3 paperback £17.99 & $32.95.
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JOHN BAINES, JOHN BENNET & STEPHEN HOUSTON (ed.). The disappearance of writing systems: perspectives on literacy and communication. xviii+380 pages, 61 illustrations, 8 tables. 2008. London: Equinox; 978-1-84553-013-6 hardback £65.
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JOHN BAINES. Visual & written culture in Ancient Egypt. xviii+420 pages, 52 illustrations, 2 tables. 2007. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 978-0-19-815250-7 hardback £75.
Whittaker image
Uniting all three books under review is one central theme, writing, but there is an interesting divergence in their focus on this topic. The first two are cross-cultural in their treatment, the third is an in-depth look at the phenomenon as it pertains to a single culture. While The first writing casts its net widely, yet loosely, concentrating on the emergence of writing in chosen regions around the world, The disappearance of writing systems, no less global in its range, takes up the long-neglected study of the opposite end of the developmental spectrum, the decline and fall of writing systems. Visual and written culture in ancient Egypt, on the other hand, covers the entire sweep of written history and culture, but in the framework of a single case study.
- 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...
- New Book: Visible Language
Oriental Institute Thanks to Rhio Barnhart for the above link. Available as a PDF download. 12.33MB OIMP 32. Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond Writing, the ability to make language visible and permanent, is...
- 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...
- 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,...