Download or read book The Riddle of the Rosetta written by Jed Z. Buchwald and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new history of the race between two geniuses to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Europe In 1799, a French Army officer was rebuilding the defenses of a fort on the banks of the Nile when he discovered an ancient stele fragment bearing a decree inscribed in three different scripts. So begins one of the most familiar tales in Egyptology—that of the Rosetta Stone and the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This book draws on fresh archival evidence to provide a major new account of how the English polymath Thomas Young and the French philologist Jean-François Champollion vied to be the first to solve the riddle of the Rosetta. Jed Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz bring to life a bygone age of intellectual adventure. Much more than a decoding exercise centered on a single artifact, the race to decipher the Rosetta Stone reflected broader disputes about language, historical evidence, biblical truth, and the value of classical learning. Buchwald and Josefowicz paint compelling portraits of Young and Champollion, two gifted intellects with altogether different motivations. Young disdained Egyptian culture and saw Egyptian writing as a means to greater knowledge about Greco-Roman antiquity. Champollion, swept up in the political chaos of Restoration France and fiercely opposed to the scholars aligned with throne and altar, admired ancient Egypt and was prepared to upend conventional wisdom to solve the mystery of the hieroglyphs. Taking readers from the hushed lecture rooms of the Institut de France to the windswept monuments of the Valley of the Kings, The Riddle of the Rosetta reveals the untold story behind one of the nineteenth century's most thrilling discoveries.
Download or read book The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone written by James Cross Giblin and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1993-02-28 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Until the Rosetta Stone was finally translated and the decoding of hieroglyphic writing made possible, much of Egyptian history was lost. The author has done a masterful job of distilling information, citing the highlights, and fitting it all together in an interesting and enlightening look at a puzzling subject." —H. "The social and intellectual history here are fascinating. A handsome, inspiring book." —K. Notable Children's Books of 1991 (ALA) Notable 1990 Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC) Children's Books of 1990 (Library of Congress) 100 Books for Reading and Sharing (NY Public Library) Parenting Honorable Mention, Reading Magic Award
Download or read book The Writing of the Gods written by Edward Dolnick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-11-22 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fast-paced and “engrossing account” (The New York Times Book Review) of “one of the greatest breakthroughs in archaeological history” (The Christian Science Monitor): two rival geniuses in a race to decode the writing on one of the world’s most famous documents—the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is one of the most famous objects in the world, attracting millions of visitors to the British museum every year, and yet most people don’t really know what it is. Discovered in a pile of rubble in 1799, this slab of stone proved to be the key to unlocking a lost language that baffled scholars for centuries. Carved in ancient Egypt, the Rosetta Stone carried the same message in different languages—in Greek using Greek letters, and in Egyptian using picture-writing called hieroglyphs. Until its discovery, no one in the world knew how to read the hieroglyphs that covered every temple and text and statue in Egypt. Dominating the world for thirty centuries, ancient Egypt was the mightiest empire the world had ever known, yet everything about it—the pyramids, mummies, the Sphinx—was shrouded in mystery. Whoever was able to decipher the Rosetta Stone would solve that mystery and fling open a door that had been locked for two thousand years. Two brilliant rivals set out to win that prize. One was English, the other French, at a time when England and France were enemies and the world’s two great superpowers. Written “like a thriller” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), The Writing of the Gods chronicles this high-stakes intellectual race in which the winner would win glory for both himself and his nation. A riveting portrait of empires both ancient and modern, this is an unparalleled look at the culture and history of ancient Egypt, “and also a lesson…in what the human mind does when faced with a puzzle” (The New Yorker).
Download or read book Stories of the Nations Volume 1 written by Sonya Shafer and published by . This book was released on 2011-04 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mr. Morris¿s narratives, originally published in 1901, make you feel as if you are listening to a kindly grandfather recounting tales from the past. This delightful book will introduce to your child famous people and events that occurred in the nations around the world. Plus we¿ve added a few chapters of our own, so Volume 1 presents stories from Queen Elizabeth through Garibaldi (1550¿1850).
Download or read book The Rosetta Stone written by R. B. Parkinson and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rosetta Stone is one of the most popular artefacts in the British Museum. Containing a decree written in Greek, Demotic and hieroglyphics, it proved to be the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. This concise study traces the history of `the most famous piece of rock in the world' to become a modern icon and tells the story of the race to use it to decipher Egypt's ancient script by Jean-François Champollion and Thomas Young. Also includes a translation of the text.
Download or read book The Riddle of the Labyrinth written by Margalit Fox and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Simon Winchester and Dava Sobel, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code tells one of the most intriguing stories in the history of language, masterfully blending history, linguistics, and cryptology with an elegantly wrought narrative. When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece’s Classical Age, he discovered a cache of ancient tablets, Europe’s earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain a mystery. Award-winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox's riveting real-life intellectual detective story travels from the Bronze Age Aegean—the era of Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Helen—to the turn of the 20th century and the work of charismatic English archeologist Arthur Evans, to the colorful personal stories of the decipherers. These include Michael Ventris, the brilliant amateur who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of the deipherment; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.
Download or read book The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum written by E. A. Wallis Budge and published by . This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a new release of the original 1929 edition.
Download or read book The Zodiac of Paris written by Jed Z. Buchwald and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-09 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The clash of faith and science in Napoleonic France The Dendera zodiac—an ancient bas-relief temple ceiling adorned with mysterious symbols of the stars and planets—was first discovered by the French during Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, and quickly provoked a controversy between scientists and theologians. Brought to Paris in 1821 and ultimately installed in the Louvre, where it can still be seen today, the zodiac appeared to depict the nighttime sky from a time predating the Biblical creation, and therefore cast doubt on religious truth. The Zodiac of Paris tells the story of this incredible archeological find and its unlikely role in the fierce disputes over science and faith in Napoleonic and Restoration France. The book unfolds against the turbulence of the French Revolution, Napoleon's breathtaking rise and fall, and the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne. Drawing on newspapers, journals, diaries, pamphlets, and other documentary evidence, Jed Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz show how scientists and intellectuals seized upon the zodiac to discredit Christianity, and how this drew furious responses from conservatives and sparked debates about the merits of scientific calculation as a source of knowledge about the past. The ideological battles would rage until the thoroughly antireligious Jean-François Champollion unlocked the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphs—and of the zodiac itself. Champollion would prove the religious reactionaries right, but for all the wrong reasons. The Zodiac of Paris brings Napoleonic and Restoration France vividly to life, revealing the lengths to which scientists, intellectuals, theologians, and conservatives went to use the ancient past for modern purposes.
Download or read book The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone written by James Giblin and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fundrum My Conundrum written by Raymond Epstein and published by Fundrum Pub. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fossil Legends of the First Americans written by Adrienne Mayor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-04-11 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The burnt-red badlands of Montana's Hell Creek are a vast graveyard of the Cretaceous dinosaurs that lived 68 million years ago. Those hills were, much later, also home to the Sioux, the Crows, and the Blackfeet, the first people to encounter the dinosaur fossils exposed by the elements. What did Native Americans make of these stone skeletons, and how did they explain the teeth and claws of gargantuan animals no one had seen alive? Did they speculate about their deaths? Did they collect fossils? Beginning in the East, with its Ice Age monsters, and ending in the West, where dinosaurs lived and died, this richly illustrated and elegantly written book examines the discoveries of enormous bones and uses of fossils for medicine, hunting magic, and spells. Well before Columbus, Native Americans observed the mysterious petrified remains of extinct creatures and sought to understand their transformation to stone. In perceptive creation stories, they visualized the remains of extinct mammoths, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine creatures as Monster Bears, Giant Lizards, Thunder Birds, and Water Monsters. Their insights, some so sophisticated that they anticipate modern scientific theories, were passed down in oral histories over many centuries. Drawing on historical sources, archaeology, traditional accounts, and extensive personal interviews, Adrienne Mayor takes us from Aztec and Inca fossil tales to the traditions of the Iroquois, Navajos, Apaches, Cheyennes, and Pawnees. Fossil Legends of the First Americans represents a major step forward in our understanding of how humans made sense of fossils before evolutionary theory developed.
Download or read book Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art written by Sarah P. Morris and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a major revisionary approach to ancient Greek culture, Sarah Morris invokes as a paradigm the myths surrounding Daidalos to describe the profound influence of the Near East on Greece's artistic and literary origins.
Download or read book The Rosetta Stone written by E. A. Wallis Sir Budge and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-06-02 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rosetta Stone by E. A. Wallis Sir Budge is an interesting and educational book. This volume tells the story of the Rosetta Stone, starting from its discovery during a French military excavation to its preservation in the British Museum as one of the great cornerstones of linguistic studies. The book contains a full and detailed explanation of the meticulous scholarship and inspired impulse that allowed a handful of scholars to decrypt the age-old code. With over 20 photographs, The Rosetta Stone is immensely academic but unstuffy; packed with linguistic details but clear and attainable to the layman; in short, it will fascinate any student of Egyptology, languages, or the history of the ancient Near East. Egyptologists' ground-breaking contributions and the work of linguists over the years eventually led to a true knowledge of the once enigmatic symbols. The book covers the history and meaning of the Rosetta Stone from an academic and also analytical point of view.
Download or read book Seeker of Knowledge written by James Rumford and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2003-06-23 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1802, Jean-Francois Champollion was eleven years old. That year, he vowed to be the first person to read Egypt’s ancient hieroglyphs. Champollion’s dream was to sail up the Nile in Egypt and uncover the secrets of the past, and he dedicated the next twenty years to the challenge. James Rumford introduces the remarkable man who deciphered the ancient Egyptian script and fulfilled a lifelong dream in the process. Stunning watercolors bring Champollion’s adventure to life in a story that challenges the mind and touches the heart.
Download or read book The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler written by James Cross Giblin and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2002 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces Hitler's life from his childhood in Austria to his final days in Berlin, exploring how his promises of prosperity and power along with anti-Semitic rhetoric allowed him to lead the nation of Germany into World War II.
Download or read book The Candy Bomber written by Gail S. Halvorsen and published by Cedar Fort Publishing & Media. This book was released on 2022-12-23 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gail Halvorsen's story began long before he flew planes full of candy over post-war Berlin. Discover how the compassion Gail showed in Germany began with lessons learned in childhood, lessons like gratitude, hope, and serving others. Illustrated with gorgeous photographs, this fitting tribute to an unforgettable act of charity will inspire you to keep kindness alive and look for the good all around you.
Download or read book Three Stones Make a Wall written by Eric H. Cline and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1922, Howard Carter peered into Tutankhamun’s tomb for the first time, the only light coming from the candle in his outstretched hand. Urged to tell what he was seeing through the small opening he had cut in the door to the tomb, the Egyptologist famously replied, “I see wonderful things.” Carter’s fabulous discovery is just one of the many spellbinding stories told in Three Stones Make a Wall. Written by Eric Cline, an archaeologist with more than thirty seasons of excavation experience, this book traces the history of archaeology from an amateur pursuit to the cutting-edge science it is today by taking the reader on a tour of major archaeological sites and discoveries. Along the way, it addresses the questions archaeologists are asked most often: How do you know where to dig? How are excavations actually done? How do you know how old something is? Who gets to keep what is found? Taking readers from the pioneering digs of the eighteenth century to today’s exciting new discoveries, Three Stones Make a Wall is a lively and essential introduction to the story of archaeology.
