Sources of Inspiration from our Collections
The following images of ancient scripts—featured on the Ask-a-Librarian web page and printed bookmarks—are drawn from the USC Libraries' collections. Just as the Rosetta Stone unlocked the mysteries of extinct languages, librarians are essential to the research process, helping students and scholars navigate the vast web of library resources on their path to discovery. Use the call numbers below to explore the sources for the images yourself.
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The History and Technique of Lettering Alexander Nesbitt NK3600 N4 1957 |
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Reading the Past: Ancient Writing from Cuneiform to the Alphabet Introduction by J.T. Hooker P211 R37 1990 |
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Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond Christopher Woods P211.3 M628 V57 2010 |
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The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences between them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone: Key to Ancient Egypt James Cross Giblin PJ1097 G5 1990 The Bhagavad-Gita: A New Translation Georg Feuerstein BL1138.62 E5 2011 |
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