The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer

Language: English

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2003

0801873894 / 9780801873898

  • First Edition
  • Hardcover
  • Used
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Seller: Edinburgh Books, Edinburgh, United KingdomEdinburgh Books

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2003. xvii, 266pp. B&W illustrations. "As the first known system of writing, the cuneiform symbols traced in Sumerian clay more than six millennia ago were once regarded as a simplistic and clumsy attempt to record in linear form the sounds of a spoken language. More recently, scholars have acknowledged that early Sumerian writing - far from being a primitive and flawed mechanism that would be "improved" by the Phoenicians and Greeks - in fact represented a complete written language system, not only meeting the daily needs of economic and government administration, but also providing a new means of understanding the world. In The Invention of Cuneiform Jean-Jacques Glassner offers a compelling introduction to this seminal era in human history. Returning to early Mesopotamian texts that have been little studied or poorly understood, he traces the development of writing from the earliest attempts to the sophisticated system of roughly 640 signs that comprised the Sumerian repertory by about 3200 B.C. Glassner further argues - with an occasional nod to Derrida - that the invention of writing had a deeper metaphysical significance. By bringing the divinely ordained spoken language under human control, Sumerians were able to "make invisibility visible," separating themselves from the divine order and creating a new model of power." Both book and unclipped dust jacket are in excellent condition. All contents are tight and clean. There are no inscriptions.…

Seller Inventory # AncientHist110

Title
The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer
Author
Glassner, Jean-Jacques (translated & edited by Zainab Bahrani & Marc van de Mieroop)
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Publication year
2003
Condition
Near Fine
Dust jacket
Near Fine
Binding
Hardcover
Language
English
ISBN 10
0801873894
ISBN 13
9780801873898
Edition
First Edition
Dimensions
9.5"tall
Seller catalogs
Ancient History/Classical

Edinburgh Books

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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AbeBooks seller since September 18, 2006

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