The Greatest Invention : A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts

Resumen del libro

This book tells the story of our greatest invention. Or, it almost does. Almost, because while the story has a beginning - in fact, it has many beginnings, not only in Mesopotamia, 3,100 years before the birth of Christ, but also in China, Egypt and Central America - and it certainly has a middle, one that snakes through the painted petroglyphs of Easter Island, through the great machines of empires and across the desks of inspired, brilliant scholars, the end of the story remains to be written.

The invention of writing allowed humans to create a record of their lives and to persist past the limits of their lifetimes. In the shadows and swirls of ancient inscriptions, we can decipher the stories they sought to record, but we can also tease out the timeless truths of human nature, of our ceaseless drive to connect, create and be remembered. The Greatest Invention chronicles an uncharted journey, one filled with past flashes of brilliance, present-day scientific research and the faint, fleeting echo of writing's future.

Biografía del autor

x{0026}lt;p x{0026}lt;strong Silvia Ferrarax{0026}lt;/strong es profesora de Filología Micénica de la Universidad de Bolonia. Ha publicado en inglés varias obras especializadas sobre la materia y está al frente del proyecto de investigación INSCRIBE (Invention of Scripts and their Beginnings) del Consejo Europeo.x{0026}lt;/p x{0026}lt;p Fotografía de la autora Adolfo Fredianix{0026}lt;/p