Glyph-Breaker [Paperback]

After successfully deciphering the Rongorongo script of Easter Island, Steven Roger Fischer gained a unique place in the pantheon of glyphbreakers: he is the only person to have deciphered not one but two ancient scripts. Both of these scripts yield clues of great historical importance. Fischers previous decipherment, of a Cretan artefact called the Phaistos Disk, provided the key to the ancient Minoan language and showed it to be closely related to Mycenaean Greek. Fischer's decipherment of Rongorongo shows that it was not merely a mnemonic device for recalling memorised texts, but was actually read and used for creative composition. This is the exciting story of these two decipherments, by the man who now must rank as the greatest glyphbreaker of all time.1 IN ODYSSEUS'S WAKE 1 1 LOGOS 13 3 THE NEW LABYRINTH 47 4 THE SKEIN OF ARIADNE 65 S HEAR YE, CRETANS AND GREEKS! 93 6 THE BATTLE OF NAXOS 119 7 RAPANUI 139 8 TALKI NG BOARDS OF TH E PACI FIC 153 9 ATOP TERE VAKA 167 10 ALL THE BIRDS ... 187 11 SURFING THE RONGORONGO 205 Suggested Reading 223 Index 227 A glyph (short for hieroglyph) is a sign in a script. And a breaker is a person who cracks a script's code. A glyph? breaker is then a decipherer, someone who lets us read the unreadable, that linguistic magician who gives voice to the mute past. Until 1984 no one had been able to read Crete's 3600-year? old Phaistos Disk, Europe's earliest literature and greatest written enigma. Until 1994 no one could make sense of Easter Island's mysterious Iongorongo writing, Oceania's only script predating the twentieth century. No one had ever deciphered two wholly different historical scripts before. Until now. This is the true story of these two achievements.1 In Odysseuss Wake.- 2 Logos.- 3 The New Labyrinth.- 4 The Skein of Ariadne.- 5 Hear Ye, Cretans and Greeks!.- 6 The Battle of Naxos.- 7 Rapanui.- 8 Talking Boards of the Pacific.- 9 Atop Tere Vaka.- 10 All The Birds &.- 11 Surfing the Rongorongo.- SugglC%