Title: Writing from Invention to Decipherment
Publication Year: 2024

Publisher: Oxford University Press
http://www.oup.com/us
Book URL: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/writing-from-invention-to-decipherment-9780198908746?utm_source=linguistlist&utm_medium=listserv&utm_campaign=linguistics

Editor(s): Silvia Ferrara, Barbara Montecchi, Miguel Vale

Hardback: ISBN: 9780198908746 Pages: 352 Price: U.S. $ 155.00

Abstract:

Writing from Invention to Decipherment contains a wealth of global scholarship on ancient writing systems from China, Mesopotamia, Central America, and the Mediterranean, to more recent newly created scripts such as the Rongorongo from Easter Island, the Caroline Island scripts, as well as the alphabet. The aim is to dig into the foundations of writing, showcasing the complexities and varieties of scripts, from their invention to the potential decipherment of poorly understood scripts.

The volume offers state-of-the-art research on undeciphered scripts from the Aegean (as for example, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A) or not completely deciphered (as for example Maya) scripts. From a methodological perspective, these contributions lay out how and why writing was invented, who used it, and to what ends. Here writing is presented as a multi-modal cultural phenomenon, that intersects and transcends neat discipline boundaries, within an inclusive approach bridging archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, and cognitive studies.

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
Historical Linguistics
History of Linguistics
Writing Systems