1
of
1
Cuneiform
Series: Ancient languages
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 366 ratings, 72 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock
Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Cuneiform. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
A unique and accessible insight into the worldβs oldest writing system, revealing how ancient inscriptions lead to a new way of thinking about the past.
A unique and accessible insight into the world's oldest writing system, revealing how ancient inscriptions lead to a new way of thinking about the past.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Cuneiform script on tablets of clay is, as far as we know, the oldest form of writing in the world. The choice of clay as a writing medium in ancient Mesopotamia meant that records of all kinds could survive down to modern times, preserving fascinating documents from ancient civilisation, written by a variety of people and societies.
From reading these tablets, we can understand not only the history and economics of the time but also the beliefs, ideas, and superstitions. This fascinating book will bring the world in which the cuneiform was written to life for the non-expert reader, revealing how ancient inscriptions can lead to a new way of thinking about the past.
It will explain how this pre-alphabetic writing really worked and how it was possible to use cuneiform signs to record so many different languages so long ago. Richly illustrated with a wealth of fresh examples ranging from elementary school exercises to revealing private letters or beautifully calligraphic literature for the royal library, we will meet people that aren't so very different from ourselves.
We will read the work of many scribesβfrom mundane record keepers to state fortune tellersβusing tricks from puns to cryptography. For the first time, cuneiform tablets and their messages are not remote and inaccessible, but wonderfully human documents that resonate today.
Series: Ancient languages
View all-
Runes
From late antiquity through to the early middle ages, people across north-western Europe were inscribing runes on a range of different objects. Once identified and interpreted by experts, runes provide us with invaluable evidence for the early 'Germanic' languages - including English, Dutch, German and the Scandinavian languages - and reveal a wealth of information about our early civilisations. Runes...Paperback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Cuneiform
Cuneiform script on tablets of clay is, as far as we know, the oldest form of writing in the world. The choice of clay as a writing medium in ancient Mesopotamia meant that records of all kinds could survive down to modern times, preserving fascinating documents from ancient civilisation, written by a variety of people and societies. From reading these...PaperbackSold Out -
Latin inscriptions
Latin Inscriptions can appear dauntingβa jumble of letters without any structure or meaning. However, once you know how, most are easy to read as they follow strict rules of grammar and abbreviation. This book will teach readers how to 'decipher' them and will highlight how even the smallest piece of information that an inscription may provide can help classicists and...PaperbackSold Out
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780714111889
Publisher: British Museum Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 11 May 2015
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: British Museum Press
Illustration: With over 50 colour illustrations; 50 Illustrations, color
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 145.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 320g
Pages: 112
About the Author
Irving Finkel is Assistant Keeper in the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum in London, where he is the curator of the collection of cuneiform clay tablets. He is the best-selling author of The Ark Before Noah, which documents the newly translated tablet of the Babylonian story of the flood which was recorded on clay tablets long before it was written down in the Hebrew Bible, proving it to be one of the worldβs most ancient and lasting stories. It is that tablet that has given rise to the story in this book.
Also by Irving Finkel
View all-
The First Ghosts
βIt's enthralling stuff, mixing the scholarly with the accessible and placing storytelling right at the heart of the human experience.β - History Revealed βA fascinating journeyβ - Yorkshire Post βMarvellous... Finkel is an expert in Mesopotamian cultures at the British Museum, and is one of the most clever, and nicest, of people it has ever been my pleasure to encounter......Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood
In The Ark Before Noah, British Museum expert Dr Irving Finkel reveals how decoding the symbols on a 4,000-year-old piece of clay enables a radical new interpretation of the Noah's Ark myth. A world authority on the period, Dr Finkel's enthralling real-life detective story began with a most remarkable event at the British Museumβthe arrival one day in 2008 of...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
More from History & Military
View all-
Saving Elli
One child. Two years in hiding. Three lives in mortal danger. In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, near Anne Frank's house, another Jewish girl is hidden. Her name is Elli. Her father has been executed at Mauthausen concentration camp. Her mother is fleeing for her life. Elli is next. To save her, resistance couple Frits and Jo Hakkens must risk everything, concealing her...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Spy and the Traitor
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre is a spellbinding Cold War thriller that unravels the true story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who risked everything to aid the British in the battle against Soviet oppression. In meticulously researched detail, Macintyre paints a vivid portrait of espionage, double-crossing, and unparalleled bravery, giving readers a riveting glimpse into...Paperback$2100Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseSuicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Man's Search For Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is a profound, thought-provoking memoir and psychological exploration that delves into the harrowing experiences of life in Nazi concentration camps, intertwined with the authorβs groundbreaking theories on existential psychology. The book is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, offering a beacon of hope and a roadmap for finding purpose...Paperback$1800Elsewhere:$2100Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Betrayal
βTom Bower is the Inspector Morse of investigative biographers, a fluent, phlegmatic storyteller and a master of intricacies.β Sunday Times The British Crown is in crisis, with constitutional threats at home and abroad. At a landmark moment in royal history, can King Charles overcome the scandals that blight the Royal family? Can the broken bonds between the Houses of Sussex...Paperback$3499Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Chief and the Empire
The Chief and the Empire uncovers the extraordinary true tale of Te Tai Tokerau rangatira Te Pahi - the first influential MΔori leader to cross the Tasman - whose curiosity about the PΔkehΔ world forged alliances, saved lives, and ultimately cost him his own. On a visit to Sydney in 1805, Te Pahi was feted as a celebrity, building close...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Discipline
Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...Paperback$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Shattered Lands
'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' β PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation β¦ both original and important' β MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia β India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...Paperback$3699Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Goliathβs Curse
Goliathβs Curse by Luke Kemp offers a radical retelling of human history through the lens of collapse, delving into what this means for our uncertain future. This narrative spans from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. It's grounded in the latest research and a comprehensive database of more than 440...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Good Settler
βWhere once I saw a view as I drove around the Taranaki coast along State Highway 45, I now see confiscated land from an invasion road. The creation story I used to subscribe to, the one in which hard-working people came here and settled the land, now jars. Weirdly, even the lawn looks different. The form of things just wonβt...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Banjara
A powerful literary debut from an astonishing new Kiwi voice, focusing on the Indo-Fijian indenture system and how it affected generations across the Pacific.Rajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region, but instead is misled into indenture to the sugarcane plantations of Fiji. While on...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
This Way Up
The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all-round cartographical nerds, The Map Men! In their long-awaited debut, YouTubeβs Map Men bring their highly infectious enthusiasm for everything map-related to the printed page for the very first time, in a brilliantly entertaining and eye-catching tome. Packed with humour and fascinating facts, This Way Up takes a deep dive into the...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
