If you live in the Chicago area, there is a free public lecture tonight by Chris Woods at 7pm in Breasted Hall related to the new, excellent Oriental Institute exhibit of the same name. Even if you cannot make the lecture, the exhibit is well worth the time–and you could download for free the official publication to whet your appetite.
The ability to represent language graphically, to make language visible, stands as one of humanity’s greatest intellectual and cultural achievements. Given in conjunction with the special exhibit, Visible Language, this lecture explores how and why humans first invented writing by comparing the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Mesoamerican inventions–the four instances in history when writing was invented–out of nothing. In this lecture, Christopher Woods discusses cultural contexts and structural features of each of these systems, focusing on important similarities and differences between them.
UPDATE: A recent article discusses the positives and some negatives of the new exhibit.
