Fiona McGowan- Amphora III

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Fiona McGowan- Amphora III

$950

Inscriptions on potsherds from broken vessels.

An assemblage of broken amphorae reveals some stages in the development of the English language as we know it today. Humanity, the great communicators, congregated and built cities in fertile Mesopotamia and Egypt around 5000 BCE. Art and architecture, trade, conquest and colonisation, wealth, power and poverty gave rise to written records of transactions and directions in law and order. Written language later expanded from telling facts to investigating ideas between people in widespread places.

Loss? Oral poems, songs and stories kept alive in the memories of the people, told and retold, embellished? Languages and dialects made obsolete by the requirements of the printing press for standardisation? Languages adapted to standard alphabet?

Inscriptions on Amphora III: 301-Counting 3000BCE,  302-Early Cuneiform, Mesopotamia,  303-Cuneiform,  304-Egyptian Hieroglyphics,  305-Phoenician uses alphabet,  306-Greek adapts Phoenician alphabet,     307-Old Greek,  308-Greek voting ostracon,  309-Rome adapts Greek, 310- Runic language in Ireland, 311- Caxton Printing press, Canterbury Tales,  312 Maori language adapted to English alphabet,  313- Autograph book, 1925


Size: 240mm x 370mm (14cm diameter top)

Medium: Broken and reassembled ceramic vessel

Status: For Sale


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