Monday, March 24, 2014

The boustrophedon form


 Three thousand years ago, an early form of writing developed in Babylonia was written in the boustrophedon form: every other line was written from right to left.

The standard from:

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go

  In the boustrophedon form:

 Mary had a little lamb

Wons sa etihw saw eceelf sti

And everywhere that Mary went

Og ot erus saw bmal eht

It takes a bit to learn how to read it, but in stride, you could read almost twice as fast.

Source: Peter Watson: "a history of thought and invention, from fire to freud", Harper Perennial, 2005.

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