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THE STORY OF DECIPHERMENT
From Egyption Hieroglyphs to Maya Script Maurice Pope "The finest work of its kind . . . a delight to read." —Science
"A concise,
well-organized study that deserves high marks." —Library
Speculation about Egyptian
hieroglyphs began in the Renaissance; though sometimes fantastic, much
of it was fascinating and fruitful. During the next two centuries European
travelers in the Near East came home with increasingly accurate copies
of the strange inscriptions to be found there. The great age of decipherment
dawned in the mid-eighteenth century, at the time of the Enlightenment,
with the Abbé Barthélemy's solution of the Palmyra script.
The author discusses the
contributions to the science of decipherment made by theorists and practitioners,
examining the intellectual developments that led to their outstanding
achievements. He explains the process of decipherment largely from the
point of view of the practitioners themselves, but in a way that laypeople
can follow. Among the scripts analyzed
are the Palmyra script, Sassanid Persian, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Persian
cuneiform, Akkadian cuneiform, the Cypriot syllabary, Hittite hieroglyphs,
the Ugaritic alphabet, and Mycenaean Linear B. For this revised edition,
the text has been brought up to date and a new section added on the
decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs. Maurice Pope, formerly Professor
of Classics at the University of Cape Town, has contributed numerous
articles to learned journals and is author or coauthor of several books
on classical subjects. ISBN-500-528105-X
· 61/4" x 91/2" · 125 illustrations
· 224 pages · ARCHAEOLOGY
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