This richly illustrated book is about codebreakers, a unique group of people who dedicate their professional lives to unravelling the mysteries of ancient scripts. It proved to be an interesting and educational read.
The book defines the difference in the roles of the epigrapher and the cryptanalyst, who are both deciphers. The epigrapher works with a script not originally designed to baffle the reader, and an underlying language which the reader may or may not know. The cryptanalyst tackles a code or cipher designed from the outset to baffle him or her, but an underlying language – such as German, ciphered from the famous Enigma machines in World War Two – which is generally obvious.
The informative 37-page general introduction begins by explaining decipherment techniques and giving an overview of the progress that has been made over the years.
The subject is brought to life by encouraging readers to consider themselves as potential decipherers. Useful observations and showing how modern language signs and symbols that are used today on traffic signs or in airports relate to those of the past.
The author identifies the hurdles to success, such as whether or not the unknown script can be related to another known language. Finally, Robinson effectively uses numerous graphics of the ancient scripts in brief ‘assignments’ to give readers the chance to try their hand at deciphering. The three successful deciphering projects are set as examples to prepare readers for the description of unsuccessful or controversial deciphering efforts in the last part of the book.
Paying Tribute
Throughout the book, Robinson honours the actual codebreakers and is sympathetic to the obstacles they faced. He examines three of the greatest triumphs in the field: Jean-François Champollion and his uncovering of the language of the Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1823; the young British architect Michael Ventris, who cracked the code of the clay tables of the Minoan civilisation of Crete Linear B in 1953; and the Soviet decipherer Yuri Knorozov and the Mayan glyphs of Central America in the 1950s.
In the second part of the book, he turns his attention to as-yet uncracked codes, beginning with scripts which, though understood, continue to elude the most brilliant minds (including the Indus script, the Etruscan language and the Rongorongo script of Easter Island).
While the principal people are named by Robinson, he also includes others whose painstaking efforts contributed to the understanding of the deciphering of ancient scripts. For example, the young 18th century Englishman whose friends called him ‘Phenomenon Young’, the man who it is claimed really triggered the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. The decipherers had to challenge conventional wisdom, especially the thinking that ancient glyphs were largely representative icons rather than phonetic symbols like our own alphabets. In the case of Linear B, it was John Chadwick’s specialist knowledge of early Greek that was important in the collaboration with Ventris which enabled the translation of more and more tablets.
The author, Englishman Andrew Robinson, holds degrees from Oxford and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He is a former literary editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement, and is well published across all forms of media. He has written some 15 books covering the diverse fields of science, archaeology and scripts, and Indian history and culture.
His publisher’s use of pale grey ink for the majority of the text detracts from the book’s interesting content and its excellent layout; the lack of contrast in the typesetting requires the book to be read under good lighting conditions. Furthermore, the size, weight and overall design of the book make it more likely to be read in libraries and academic institutions than in the home.
Reviewer: Bryant Pattison
As a teenager, Bryant Pattison spent two summers as a volunteer on an Iron Age and Tudor dig where she developed an interest in archaeology. She has a love of travel, museums, conservation and reading history, as well as the decorative arts. She is interested in ‘the story’ of how others lived, particularly their lifestyles and culture.
