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Forgotten Scripts: Their Ongoing Discovery and Decipherment
xxi + 226 pp., 8vo.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 13, 2023
Filled with really interesting information about both the decipherment of languages and their roles in human history, but clearly had a lot of white bias in it, not surprising for a book from the 60s but still frustrating
January 29, 2012
The 1982 revised edition. A very helpful, readable explanation of how the ancient languages were deciphered by Champollion, Bedrich Hrozny (who cracked Hittite), and others. Beginning with the basic principles of cryptography, Gordon explains how the identification of proper names led to (in some cases) total decipherment of alien scripts and tongues. Gordon includes a few choice words about “obscurantist” academics, who deny the work of pioneers because it may shake the foundations of their fields. He concludes the book with a few extracts of ancient writings, which serve to show how our own western culture has deep roots in ancient Near East cultures.
April 4, 2018
I got a hold of this as an old Penguin book when I was 12, and it had a huge influence. I've loved mysterious languages in different scripts ever since.
The man was amazing. He would just go off and fluently learn another 3 or 4 languages a year, till he knew around 30, from Norwegian to Hebrew, to Ugaritic. I always wanted that talent! A good read.
The man was amazing. He would just go off and fluently learn another 3 or 4 languages a year, till he knew around 30, from Norwegian to Hebrew, to Ugaritic. I always wanted that talent! A good read.
July 10, 2018
The author clearly had personal arguments with the scholars he disagreed with. The farther along in the book one reads the more it becomes an attack piece on this author's critics than an overview of how ancient languages were figured out.
December 5, 2011
Interesting study, by an old but well known at his time scholar. The account of historical events related to the decipherments of the Hieroglyphics, Old Persian, Summero-Akkadian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Minoan and Elabaite, etc. is always fascinating, even if you have heard and read many times about all these stuff.
The writer presents the protagonists who contributed to the decipherments and the archaeological discoveries made, which helped towards the right direction.
Of course Cyrus Gordon was a jew, who had a preference to the semitic languages; but as regards the Minoan and Cyprian languages this preference tends to become a biased interpretation.
There were connections between the semitic peoples and the Minoans, which doesn't indicate a necessary semitic origin of the Linear A and B scriptures. (It is in honor of him, that he writes: "What civilized person is not Hellenophile?" - page 131).
In general this book is a pleasant reading, and not so much difficult, as one would have supposed from the subject with which it deals.
The writer presents the protagonists who contributed to the decipherments and the archaeological discoveries made, which helped towards the right direction.
Of course Cyrus Gordon was a jew, who had a preference to the semitic languages; but as regards the Minoan and Cyprian languages this preference tends to become a biased interpretation.
There were connections between the semitic peoples and the Minoans, which doesn't indicate a necessary semitic origin of the Linear A and B scriptures. (It is in honor of him, that he writes: "What civilized person is not Hellenophile?" - page 131).
In general this book is a pleasant reading, and not so much difficult, as one would have supposed from the subject with which it deals.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews