Denise Schmandt-Besserat

Denise Schmandt - Besserat ( born August 10, 1933, Ay, Champagne, France ) is a French -born American professor at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas in Austin. Its focus is the archeology of the Middle East. She researched the origins of writing and mathematics and has published several books on these topics.

Schmandt - Besserat studied at the École du Louvre in Paris. From the 1960s she undertook as an archaeologist study trips to the Middle East. She realized in 1970 for the first time, that the said of her token small clay figures ( eg in the form of spheres, disks, cones, cylinders ) that were found throughout the Middle East in cultural layers before the invention of writing and long mystery tasks, tools for an old number system from the period 8000-3000 BC are (which was already partially on the base 60 ). They represent certain numbers of goods, often in an envelope with the seal of the owner, and part of the early cuneiform symbols have emerged from them by their shape was recorded in lists on clay tablets in the next step. 1974 published her first publications to which they with articles in Scientific American, Discovery ( and later as a frequently interviewed expert in television programs such as Discovery Channel ), they made known to the wider public. In their view, the system of cuneiform developed from these ancient counting systems, so the font from mathematics. In other books, she also went to the cognitive impact of the writing system, for example, according to the development of literature and art in Mesopotamia.

In 2008, she was also involved in excavations at Neolithic sites in Ain Ghazal in Amman in Jordan.

Schmandt - Besserat has a full professorship in Austin and retired in 2004 ( Professor Emerita ) since 1988. She is an honorary doctor of Kenyon College, was awarded the " Walter J. Ong Award for Career Achievement ," the " Holloway Teaching Award ", the " Eugene Kayden Press Book Award " and the " Hamilton Book Award ". She was honored as "Outstanding Woman in the Humanities " by the "American Association of University Women".

Schmandt - Besserat is married to German-born Jurgen Schmandt, 1971-2001 professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

Writings

• When Writing Met Art - From Symbol to Story, University of Texas Press 2007 ( popular science )
• How Writing Came About, University of Texas Press 1996 ( popular science, of American Scientist of the 100 science books that shaped the century, selected)
• Before Writing: From Counting to cuniform, 2 volumes, University of Texas Press 1992
• The History of Counting, Morrow, 1999 ( for young people, followed by The History of Writing )
• From the origin of Scripture, Scientific American, December 1978, p.4 -13 (according to the Scientific American article 1978)