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Writing and Civilization: From Ancient Worlds to Modernity

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Overview

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Discover the fascinating history of the written word-its invention, transmission from culture to culture, and evolution-in this interesting course by an anthropologist.

Syllabus

  • 01: What Is Writing?
  • 02: The Origins and Development of Writing
  • 03: Where Did Our Alphabet Come From?
  • 04: The Fubark-A Germanic Alphabet
  • 05: Chinese-A Logosyllabic Script
  • 06: Japanese-The World's Most Complex Script
  • 07: What Is Decipherment?
  • 08: The Five Pillars of Decipherment
  • 09: Epigraphic Illustration
  • 10: The History of Language
  • 11: Proper Nouns and Cultural Context
  • 12: Bilinguals, Biscripts, and Other Constraints
  • 13: Egyptian-The First Great Decipherment
  • 14: What Do Egyptian Hieroglyphs Say?
  • 15: Old Persian-Cuneiform Deciphered
  • 16: What Does Cuneiform Say?
  • 17: Mycenaean Linear B-An Aegean Syllabary
  • 18: Mayan Glyphs-A New World Logosyllabary
  • 19: What Do the Mayan Glyphs Say?
  • 20: Aztec Hieroglyphs-A Recent Decipherment
  • 21: Etruscan and Meroitic-Undeciphered Scripts
  • 22: Han'gul, Tengwar, and Other Featural Scripts
  • 23: Medium and Message
  • 24: The Future of Writing
  • By This Professor

Taught by

Marc Zender, Ph.D.

Reviews

4.4 rating at The Great Courses Plus based on 93 ratings

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