Writing and Civilization: From Ancient Worlds to Modernity
Offered By: The Great Courses Plus
Course Description
Overview
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
- By This Professor
- 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
Taught by
Marc Zender, Ph.D.
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