Reading the Past: Ancient Writing From Cuneiform to the Alphabet by J.T. Hooker

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket: Very Good. 1998. Barnes & Noble. Illustrated.

Written signs have been around for more than 5,000 years, but as civilizations died they often took with them the key to understanding those signs. Then, within the last two centuries, scientists "cracked the code" of cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Linear B, opening up great vistas on the past and enabling us to decipher for the first time evidence from ancient documents and monuments. Written by six specialists, this volume collects these and other stories in the history of writing, tracing its progression from pictograms to the development of the alphabet, and exploring such factors as the legacy of Greek inscriptions and the role of the Etruscan language as a bridge from ancient Greece to Rome. Contributors include Larissa Bonfante, John Chadwick, B.F. Cook, W.V. Davies, John F. Healy, and C.B.F. Walker, and an introduction by J.T. Hooker surveys the complex subject of writing and covers certain important elements not detailed in the main text. B&W illus.