TY  - BOOK
AU  - Ferrara,Silvia
AU  - Portnowitz,Todd
TI  - The greatest invention: a history of the world in nine mysterious scripts 
SN  - 9780374601621
PY  - 2022///
CY  - New York
PB  - Farrar, Straus and Giroux
KW  - Writing
KW  - History
KW  - Inscriptions
KW  - Extinct languages
N1  - "Originally published in Italian in 2019 ... as La grande invenzione ... English translation published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux First American edition 2022" -- verso; Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-289); Behind the scenes. Stories ; Nature -- Undeciphered scripts. Islands. Crete ; Cyprus ; Easter Island -- Invented scripts. Cities ; Before the Pharaohs ; Between two rivers ; Chinese turtles ; Across the ocean ; End of story -- Experiments. Tradition ; Solitary inventors ; Isolated branches ; Social inventors -- Discoveries. Where to begin ; How to decipher -- The great vision. First ; Afterward ; Tomorrow ; Postscriptum
N2  - "Silvia Ferrara leads a code cracking mission to decipher the hidden truths and histories of our greatest invention-the art of writing"--; Ferrara takes a profound look at how-- and how many times-- human beings have managed to produce the miracle of written language around the world. Readers will examine the enigmas of undeciphered scripts; study the turtle shells and ox scapulae that bear the earliest Chinese inscriptions, and venture to the cutting edge as high-powered laser scanners bring tears to an engineer's eyes. Ferrara chronicles a journey filled with past flashes of brilliance, present-day scientific research, and a faint glimpse of writing's future. -- adapted from jacket
ER  -