Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Writing and Art
• Part One. How Writing Shaped Art
  • 1. Pottery Painting
  • 2. Glyptic
  • 3. The Uruk Vase: Sequential Narrative
  • 4. Wall and Floor Painting
• Part Two. How Art Shaped Writing
  • 5. Funerary Inscriptions
  • 6. Votive and Dedicatory Inscriptions
  • 7. The Stele of Hammurabi
• Conclusion: The Interface between Writing and Art
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Promotional Information

By the author of Before Writing and How Writing Came About, a groundbreaking investigation into how ancient Near Eastern writing and art co-evolved, thereby multiplying the human capacity to communicate.

About the Author

Denise Schmandt-Besserat is Professor Emerita of Art and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work on the origins of writing has been covered by Scientific American, Time, Life, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. She has also appeared on television programs such as Out of the Past (Discovery Channel), Discover (Disney Channel), The Nature of Things (CBC), Search for Solutions (PBS), and Tell the Truth (NBC).