Lost languages

What Hacker News says

1. acheronMar 2024
   I’m not going to read this link because nothing is worth trying to deal with the Twitter UI, but if you’re interested in the topic there’s a bunch on it in Andrew Robinson’s book Lost Languages.
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2. acheronAug 2023
   If you’re interested in this kind of thing, I recommend the book Lost Languages by Andrew Robinson.
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3. acheronJul 2023
   Related book I liked: “Lost Languages” by Andrew Robinson.
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4. acheronDec 2018
   Couple out of the box ones:

   Lost Languages - Andrew Robinson. Starts with the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mayan hieroglyphs, and "Minoan" Linear B, then goes into detail about many still undeciphered writing systems. Existing examples, what's been studied and tried, the personalities of people involved, etc. Fascinating stuff. One of the few examples of the "Isthmian script" or epi-Olmec script[0] (a precursor to the Mayan writing system) is owned by the Smithsonian Natural History museum, and while I think they usually keep it in storage, it coincidentally was on display this summer and I took a trip to go see it after reading the book.

   Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts - Christopher de Hamel. 12 different medieval manuscripts the author goes to visit. Describes their history, where they are now and what it's like to see them, contains many detailed reproductions of pages, etc. Not at all dry; the author writes well and adds bits of humor, while still getting across all the necessary details.

   [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isthmian_script

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5. bcbrownDec 2018
   I added Lost Languages to my reading list, thanks for the suggestion.
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