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The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone

The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone

  • Downloads：1258
  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2021-10-21 03:19:06
  • Update Date：2025-09-06
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Edward Dolnick
  • ISBN：1501198939
  • Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Reviews

Perry ，

The decoding story of the Rosette Stone is surprisingly gripping。 The author allows enough discursive rope to illustrate interesting points， but does not lose the main thread。 There is even some evidence for hedgehog （Champollion） over fox （Young） thinking。

Evelina | AvalinahsBooks ，

How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss3。5 stars， rounded to 4The Writing of the Gods is incredibly easily readable and instantly draws you in。 It’s very easy to jump into even if you have never read anything of the like before。 This is a great thing for nonfiction， because quite a few nonfiction authors fail to make their books accessible to non-academics。 In fact， I may have not noticed this， if I wasn’t reading another nonfiction book at the same time as this one （Kindred: How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss3。5 stars， rounded to 4The Writing of the Gods is incredibly easily readable and instantly draws you in。 It’s very easy to jump into even if you have never read anything of the like before。 This is a great thing for nonfiction， because quite a few nonfiction authors fail to make their books accessible to non-academics。 In fact， I may have not noticed this， if I wasn’t reading another nonfiction book at the same time as this one （Kindred: Neanderthal Life， Love， Death and Art – a book about Neanderthals）， and found them in stark difference of accessibility。 Where Kindred fails to explain cryptic terms， The Writing of the Gods doesn’t even use them where it can be avoided， therefore making your reading experience natural and accessible。That said， one thing I noticed was that this book was a little repetitive。 It sometimes comes back to the same bits of history and glances over them again， almost as if there was not enough material and it’s trying to fill out the book？ Then again， at the end the details on furthering the efforts of decoding after Champollion and Young’s deaths were nearly glossed over in just a couple of pages， and I found that odd as well， so maybe it’s just the chosen pacing， which I wasn’t sure I liked so much。 There’s also not a whole lot about the deciphering of the script in general， at least not until the very end。Anyway， if this was the only book I’d read about deciphering， then maybe I wouldn’t be saying it – but my bar is set extremely high， as a year or two ago I read The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code – the story of deciphering Linear B。 It seems you can’t write a thrilling story about that sort of thing， but you totally can， and the author of The Riddle of the Labyrinth proved this – I was glued to the pages， reading it like some high-stakes adventure novel。 The Writing of the Gods is a great book， but it’s nowhere near The Riddle of the Labyrinth。Anyway， I had more thoughts about this book， you can read them here in the full review:https://avalinahsbooks。space/writing-。。。 [image error]I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review。 This has not affected my opinion。Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter 。。。more

Nancy ，

This book has so much going for it， it’s hard to say what I enjoyed most！The story of the Egyptian civilization which lasted 30，000 years？ How Bonaparte brought not only an army of warriors， but an army of savants to Egypt？ How ancient Egypt spurred the imagination of Europeans， with collectors and amateur Egyptologists scrambling to discover and buy up ancient artifacts？The story of the Rosetta stone with its three sections of ancient languages， and how brilliant， eccentric scholars vied to be This book has so much going for it， it’s hard to say what I enjoyed most！The story of the Egyptian civilization which lasted 30，000 years？ How Bonaparte brought not only an army of warriors， but an army of savants to Egypt？ How ancient Egypt spurred the imagination of Europeans， with collectors and amateur Egyptologists scrambling to discover and buy up ancient artifacts？The story of the Rosetta stone with its three sections of ancient languages， and how brilliant， eccentric scholars vied to be the first to decode it？The history of writing， from mercantile records to historic records to literature， and from symbols to the alphabet？The history of decoding？The Writing of the Gods by Edward Dolnick covers it all， wrapped in an engaging and accessible book。Ancient Egyptian was a dead language when the Rosetta stone was found。 The writing on the stone included Egyptian hieroglyphics， Greek， and an unknown section which turned out to be an ancient Egyptian shorthand for the hieroglyphics。Ancient Egypt had been a stable society with few changes。 The hieroglyphics did not change， unlike， say English。 I can’t pick up Beowulf （circa 1000 AD） and read it without translation。 The Egyptians knew about the wheel， but were not inspired to create a cart。 All those pyramids were built without wheels！ They made ramps of sand and pushed those stones into place！ Christianity and the Mamelukes and the bubonic plague came along， and Egypt became a has-been。 By the time Bonaparte arrived， magnificent temples were used for garbage dumps and sand buried the Sphinx up to her chin。Dolnick leads readers step by step to understand how the hieroglyphics were decoded。 It had long been believed that they were symbols not representative of spoken language。 Two scholars with different backgrounds and approaches took up the challenge of decoding the stone。 First， the cartouches were considered， believing they were the names of the pharaohs seen in the Greek section of the Rosetta stone。 These pharaohs were Greek， for Greece had conquered Egypt。 Perhaps the symbols stood for sounds of the Greek names。 The symbols were connected to sounds; the lion symbol stood for the sound “l’ in Ptolemy and Cleopatra， for instance。 One scholar believed that Coptic was born out of ancient Egyptian and he determined to learn it although it was nearly a dead language， only surviving in the Coptic Church。 This aided in understanding how the letters were pronounced。Cracking the names of the pharaohs in the cartouches was just the beginning of the long process of decoding hieroglyphics。Utterly fascinating and always engaging， I much enjoyed this book。I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley。 My review is fair and unbiased。 。。。more