Writing is among the great inventions in human history — perhaps the greatest invention, because it made history possible. The process of deciphering ancient scripts is an intellectual and imaginative challenge to both archeological scholars and amateurs alike. Each script is unique, so decipherment is akin to invention. These ancient writing systems provide a window to past civilizations, and help us to understand how our modern writing systems function. Andrew Robinson, in his new book Lost Languages (McGraw-Hill, $34.95, £25.99), tells the fascinating stories of deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mayan glyphs and Linear B. He then surveys the important scripts still awaiting decipherment, including the Indus script and the Phaistos disc of Crete (above), believed to be the world's oldest 'printed' document, dating back to before 1600 bc.