Book
From Picture to Symbol
Saarbrücken (Germany), 2013, 258 p.
The author predominantly researches prehistory of a script from culturological and fine art standpoints: the formation of script within general pictorial massif and the process of separation of graphic symbol from pictures. Pictures acquire a function of denotation beginning from Mesolithic. This trend reaches its apogee in the Iron Age, on the eve of the birth of early civilizations. From our point of view, ancient man invented bulky and inextricable systems of script, but not because he was less clever than we are. Actually his mentality was different from ours. The difference between modern and ancient man’s mentality in the sphere of script was first of all in vivid domination of visual images, but not the notions. Written language appeared not as the result of evolution of primitive pictography, but most probably contrary to it: even at the early stages of the most ancient systems of script existence they contained phonetic symbols.
РУССКАЯ ВЕРСИЯ: От изображения к знаку