The Story of Writing

Discover the fascinating history of writing with this absorbing text that explores each major writing system, from Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphs to alphabets and the scripts of China and Japan. Author Andrew Robinson discusses the interconnection between sound, symbol, and script, as well as topics such as the Cherokee “alphabet” and the writing of runes. Readers will also learn about the history of decipherment, with a chapter devoted to undeciphered scripts that challenges whether these codes can ever be broken. This revised edition includes the latest discoveries in the history of writing, including a third millennium BC seal from Turkmenistan that could solve the mystery of how Chinese writing evolved.