Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond (Oriental Institute Museum Publications)

Writing, the ability to make language visible and permanent, is one of humanity's greatest inventions. This book presents current perspectives on the origins and development of writing in Mesopotamia and Egypt, providing an overview of each writing system and its uses. Essays on writing in China and Mesoamerica complete coverage of the four "pristine" writing systems - inventions of writing in which there was no previous exposure to texts. The authors explore what writing is, and is not, and sections of the text are devoted to Anatolian hieroglyphs of Anatolia, and to the development of the alphabet in the Sinai Peninsula in the second millennium BC and its spread to Phoenicia where it spawned the Greek and Latin alphabets. This richly illustrated volume, issued in conjunction with an exhibit at the Oriental Institute, provides a current perspective on, and appreciation of, an invention that changed the course of history. This Unique Exhibit Is The Result Of Collaborative Efforts Of More Than Twenty Authors And Loans From Five Museums. It Focuses On The Independent Invention Of Writing In At Least Four Different Places In The Old World And Mesoamerica With The Earliest Texts Of Uruk, Mesopotamia (5,300 Bc) Shown In The United States For The First Time. Visitors To The Exhibit And Readers Of This Catalog Can See And Compare The Parallel Pathways By Which Writing Came Into Being And Was Used By The Earliest Kingdoms Of Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, And The Maya World. Foreword / Gil J. Stein -- Preface / Geoff Emberling -- Introduction. Visible Language : The Earliest Writing Systems / Christopher Woods -- Cuneiform In Mesopotamia And Anatolia. Iconography Of Protoliterate Seals / Oya Topc̜uoǧlu -- The Earliest Mesopotamian Writings / Christopher Woods ; Object Descriptions : Catalog Nos. 1-58 -- Adaptation Of Cuneiform To Write Akkadian / Andrea Seri ; Object Descriptions : Catalog Nos. 59-62 -- The Rise And Fall Of Cuneiform Script In Hittite Anatolia / Theo Van Den Hout ; Object Descriptions : Catalog No. 63 -- Egyptian Writing. The Concept And Development Of The Egyptian Writing System / Elise V. Macarthur ; Egyptian Myth Of The Creation Of Writing ; Object Descriptions : Catalog Nos. 64-79 -- The Earliest Egyptian Writing / Andréas Stauder -- Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing / Janet H. Johnson ; Object Descriptions : Catalog Nos. 80-82 -- Orientation Of Hieroglyphs ; Writing In Nefermaat / Julie Stauder-porchet -- The Potency Of Writing In Egypt / Emily Teeter -- Hieratic / Kathryn E. Bandy ; Object Descriptions : Catalog Nos. 83-84 -- Demotic / Janet H. Johnson ; Object Descriptions : Catalog No. 85 -- Ptolemaic Hieroglyphs / Franc̜ois Gaudard ; Object Descriptions : Catalog No. 86 -- Coptic / T.g. Wilfong -- Alphabetic Writing. Invention And Development Of The Alphabet / Joseph Lam ; Object Descriptions : Catalog Nos. 89-94 -- Anatolian Hieroglyphs. Anatolian Hieroglyphic Writing / Ilya Yakubovich ; Object Descriptions : Catalog Nos. 95-99 -- China Mesoamerican Hieroglyphs. The Beginnings Of Writing In China / Edward L. Shaughnessy ; Object Descriptions : Catalog Nos. 100-101-- Mesoamerican Hieroglyphs. The Development Of Maya Writing / Joel Palka ; Object Descriptions : Catalog No. 102 -- Concordance Of Museum Registration Numbers -- Checklist Of The Exhibit. Edited By Christopher Woods With The Assistance Of Geoff Emberling & Emily Teeter. Exhibition Catalog Held At The Oriental Institute Of Chicago. Includes Bibliographical References.