The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts
Written by Silvia Ferrara
Narrated by Todd Portnowitz
5/5
()
About this audiobook
With Ferrara as our guide, we examine the enigmas of undeciphered scripts, including famous cases like the Phaistos Disk and the Voynich Manuscript; we touch the knotted, colored strings of the Inca quipu; we study the turtle shells and ox scapulae that bear the earliest Chinese inscriptions; we watch in awe as Sequoyah single-handedly invents a script for the Cherokee language; and we venture to the cutting edge of decipherment, in which high-powered laser scanners bring tears to an engineer's eye.
A code-cracking tour around the globe, The Greatest Invention chronicles a previously uncharted journey, one filled with past flashes of brilliance, present-day scientific research, and a faint, fleeting glimpse of writing's future.
Silvia Ferrara
Silvia Ferrara is a professor of Aegean civilization at the University of Bologna. She studied at University College London and the University of Oxford, and after spending several years researching archaeology and and linguistics at Oxford, she returned to Italy. She has taught at University College London, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and Sapienza University of Rome. She is the author of The Greatest Invention and the academic book Origins of Writing in the Eastern Mediterranean, among others.
Related to The Greatest Invention
Related audiobooks
Future Stories: What's Next? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Everyday Life From the Stone Age to the Phone Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Palimpsest: A History of the Written Word Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth About Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Island: Discovery, Defiance, and the Most Elusive Tribe on Earth Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think: How Humans Learned to See the Future–and Shape It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Equations of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evolutions: Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Alien Worlds: The Secret Lives of Insects Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things That Go Bump in the Universe: How Astronomers Decode Cosmic Chaos Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Language Arts & Discipline For You
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing Well Audio Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Six Cs of Effective Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Win Your Case: How to Present, Persuade, and Prevail--Every Place, Every Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Messages: The Communication Skills Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Write for Life: Creative Tools for Every Writer (A 6-Week Artist's Way Program) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mastering Logical Fallacies: The Definitive Guide to Flawless Rhetoric and Bulletproof Logic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Write a Book This Weekend, Even If You Flunked English Like I Did Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Start to Finish: The Transformative Power of Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the President's Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Write Your First Novel: The Stress-Free Guide to Writing Fiction for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Greatest Invention
2 ratings0 reviews