How Writing Came About
eBook - ePub

How Writing Came About

  1. 207 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

How Writing Came About

About this book

An "utterly lucid, thoughtfully illustrated, and thoroughly convincing" book on the origins of the world's oldest known system of writing ( American Journal of Archaeology ). One of American Scientist's Top 100 Books on Science, 2001 In 1992, the University of Texas Press published Before Writing, Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform and Before Writing, Volume II: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens. In these two volumes, Denise Schmandt-Besserat set forth her groundbreaking theory that the cuneiform script invented in the Near East in the late fourth millennium B.C.—the world's oldest known system of writing—derived from an archaic counting device. How Writing Came About draws material from both volumes of this scholarly work to present Schmandt-Besserat's theory in an abridged version for a wide public and classroom audience. Based on the analysis and interpretation of a selection of 8, 000 tokens or counters from 116 sites in Iran, Iraq, the Levant, and Turkey, it documents the immediate precursor of the cuneiform script.

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Yes, you can access How Writing Came About by Denise Schmandt-Besserat in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Archaeology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Introduction: Tokens, a New Theory
  8. PART ONE: THE EVIDENCE
  9. PART TWO: THE INTERPRETATION
  10. PART THREE: THE ARTIFACTS
  11. Notes
  12. Glossary
  13. Index