http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file
   For complete access to all the files of this collection
        see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php
  ==========================================================

amazon.com </ref=gno_logo> 	
  Universal Iconography in Writing Systems: Evidence and Explanation in
  the Easter Island and Indus Valley Scripts (Kindle Edition)

by Richard E. McDorman



      Product Description

Short Monograph (18 pages).

Iconography has played a central role in the development of writing
systems. That all independently derived ancient scripts began as
arrangements of pictograms before evolving into their elaborated forms
evinces the fundamental importance of iconography in the evolution of
writing. Symbols of the earliest logographic writing systems are
characterized by a number of iconographic principles. Elucidation of
these iconographic principles provides a theoretical framework for the
analysis of structural similarities in unrelated, independently evolved
writing systems.

Two such writing systems are the ancient Indus Valley and Easter Island
scripts. Although separated by vast tracts of time and space, the two
writing systems share between forty and fifty complex characters, a
problem first identified by Hevesy in 1932. Previous attempts to explain
the similarities between the Indus Valley script and the rongorongo of
Easter Island, which have relied on notions of cultural contact or
historical derivation, have proved unfruitful. In reconsidering the
problem, a novel approach based on comparative iconographic principles
can explain the resemblances between the two scripts as the product of
the universal iconography displayed by all writing systems in their
pictographic and logographic stages of development.
.....

By 	Diwiyana

*This review is from: Universal Iconography in Writing Systems: Evidence
and Explanation in the Easter Island and Indus Valley Scripts (Kindle
Edition)*

This well-written essay gives a reasonable explanation for why there are
a handful of similar symbols in the Easter Island rongorongo script, on
the one hand, and the Indus Valley script, on the other. The author does
not make the outrageous claim, as some others have, that a boatload of
refugees from the Indus Valley must have traversed thousands of miles of
open ocean to Easter Island to teach writing, never stopping to teach
anybody in between. That would be absurd, not only because of the
distance, but also because of the time lag. He does not claim the
similarities are simply coincidence, either.

Instead, he proposes a universal icon set which all people tend to draw
on when they begin to write. These icons are essentially pictures of
things, also including basic geometric shapes. Superficially, then, all
early scripts will have certain similarities. However, the meanings
assigned to, say, a circle or an apparent asterisk, or three triangles,
will differ from one society to another. This difference will be
especially large where people are trying to communicate abstract ideas,
as opposed to notions such as, say, "sheep," or "eye" or "man."

If I had any complaints, it would have to do with the Kindle's ability
to reproduce the hieroglyphs. I think there were some inaccuracies in
the table, for example, but these may all have been due to the Kindle
being unable to faithfully reproduce little details of Old Seal Chinese,
pre-cuneiform Sumerian, and so on. It's kind of hard to tell.
Fascinating reading.