Barry B. Powell

Writing - Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

"This is an excellent, accessible introduction to writing s origins and development; Powell s jargon-free exposition clarifies many important issues in a way that specialist discussions have rarely achieved to date.

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Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization traces the origins of writing tied to speech from ancient Sumer through the Greek alphabet and beyond.

Examines the earliest evidence for writing in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC, the origins of purely phonographic systems, and the mystery of alphabetic writing

Includes discussions of Ancient Egyptian,Chinese, and Mayan writing

Shows how the structures of writing served and do serve social needs and in turn create patterns of social behavior

Clarifies the argument with many illustrations

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley & Sons
• 1. Auflage
• Seitenzahl: 304
• Erscheinungstermin: 20. Februar 2012
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 17mm
• Gewicht: 380g
• ISBN-13: 9781118255322
• ISBN-10: 1118255321
• Artikelnr.: 34998921

Autorenporträt

Barry B. Powell is Halls-Bascom Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has written extensively on ancient Greek literature and the history of writing. His books include Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet (1991), A New Companion to Homer (editor, with Ian Morris) (1997), Writing and the Origins of Greek Literature (2001), and two editions of Homer (second edition, Blackwell, 2007).

Inhaltsangabe

List of Illustrations ix Maps xiv Preface xv Chronology xvii Introduction:
A Difficult Topic, Little Studied, Poorly Understood 1 1 What Is Writing?
11 2 Writing with Signs 19 3 Categories and Features of Writing 38 4 Some
General Issues in the Study of Writing 51 5 Protocuneiform and Counting
Tokens 60 6 Origin of Lexigraphic Writing in Mesopotamia 70 7 Plato's Ideas
and Champollion's Decipherment of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs 85 8 Egyptian
Writing and Egyptian Speech 100 9 The Origin and Nature of Egyptian Writing
108 10 "The House of Life": Scribes and Writing in Ancient Egypt 120 11
Syllabic Scripts of the Aegean 128 12 The West Semitic Revolution 148 13
What Kind of Writing Was West Semitic? 163 14 The Origins of West Semitic
Writing 175 15 Chinese Logography 187 16 Lexigraphic Writing in Mesoamerica
206 17 The Greek Alphabet: A Writing That Changed the World 227 18 Summary
and Conclusions 245 Glossary 255 Bibliography 263 Index 270