by DAVID KAHN
904 Dhautpoul: Karl Marek [pseud. C. W. Ceram], Gods, Graves, and Scholars, trans. E. B. Garside (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1951), 90.
907 Champollion’s solution: Iversen, 124-149; Johannes Friedrich, Extinct Languages, trans. Frank Gaynor (New York: Philosophical Library, 1957), 5-25; Cleator, 29-64; Doblhofer, 38-84; Marek, 85-116; Champollion, Lettre à M. Dacier… (Paris: Firmin Didot Père et fils, 1822), 2, 3-4.
912 cuneiform: Friedrich, 29-67; Cleator, 64-112; Pedersen, 154-160; Aalto, 4-5.
914 Hittite cuneiform: Friedrich, 69-79; Cleator, 118-119.
914 Meroitic, Lycian, Lydian, Libyan, Iberian, Sabaean, Safaitic, Pahlavī, Brahmī, Sogdian, Mon, Khmer, Gupta: Friedrich, Pedersen, Diringer, Gelb.
916 Kök-Turki: Pedersen, 196-199; Doblhofer, 271-293.
916 Etruscan: Friedrich, 137-143; M. Pallottino, The Etruscans, trans. by J. Cremona (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1955), 229-280.
916 Indus Valley, Easter Island: Friedrich, 169-173; Gelb, 90-91; Doblhofer, 301-311; Thomas S. Barthel, “The ‘Talking Boards’ of Easter Island,” Scientific American, CXCVIII (June, 1958), 61-68.
917 Phaistos Disk: Diringer, 78; Gelb, 155-157; Aalto, 6. A very full bibliography in E. Grumach, Bibliographic der kretisch-mykenischen Epigraphik (Munich and Berlin, 1963).
917 Maya: E. V. Yevreinov, Yu. G. Kosarev, and V. A. Ustinov, three 1961 articles from different Russian sources translated and published as Foreign Developments in Machine Translation and Information Processing, No. 40, by the United States, Department of Commerce, Office of Technical Services, Joint Publications Research Service, No. 10508; and criticism by Yu. V. Knorozov, Ibid., No. 102, same publisher, No. 14318; Felix Shirokov, “Computer Deciphers Maya Hieroglyphics,” The UNESCO Courier, XV (March, 1962), 26-32.
917 Linear B: Unless otherwise specified, all decipherment details are from John Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (Cambridge: University Press, 1958), and Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Cambridge: University Press, 1956), 11-25. Archeological details mostly from Marek, 29-67, and Paul MacKendrick, The Greek Stones Speak (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1962), 3-117.
918 March 31: Correction by Bennett of Leonard R. Palmer, Mycenaeans and Minoans (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962), 48.
919 four types of writing: Gelb, 91-95.
919 “it is probable”: Evans in Annual of British School at Athens, VI, 59, quoted Chadwick, 17.
919 Evans classification: Arthur Evans, The Palace of Minos, IV, part 2 (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1935), 716-725 for cultures, 681 for associations, 714 for male and female, 715 for “good evidence of declension,” 713 for Semitic letter.
920 Cypriote: Friedrich, 124-131; Doblhofer, 227-237; Pedersen, 168-171; Gelb, 153-155, for interrelationships of Cretan and Cypriote.
921 pro- and anti-Evans views: “Editorial Notes,” Antiquity, XXVII (March, 1954), 1-2.
922 “there is no palace”: Eivans, 755.
922 160-page discussion: Evans, 666-825.
922 Gordon, Stawell: Chadwick, 28-30.
923 “The theory that”: M. G. F. Ventris, “Introducing the Minoan Languge,” American Journal of Archaeology, XLIV (October-December, 1940), 494-520 at 494.
923 “It can be done”: Ibid., 520.
923 Hrozný: Bedřich Hrozný, Les Inscriptions Crétoises, Essai de Déchiffrement, trans. Madeleine David, Monografie Archivu Orientalního, XII (Prague: Orientálni Ústav, 1949), at 10 for ha.
923 “When the decipherer”: review by Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., American Journal of Archaeology, LIV (January, 1950), 81-82. Friedrich, 165.
923 Georgiev: “Le déchiffrement des inscriptions minoennes,” Annuaire de l’ Université de Sofia, Faculté Historico-Philologique, XLV (1948/1949), Livre 4, No. 2, 1-81, at 13.
923 Sittig: Who’s Who in Germany, 1960; Chadwick 32; Friedrich, 165-166.
923 Kober: obituary in The New York Times (May 17, 1950).
923 adze and chariot: “The ‘Adze’ Tablets from Knossos,” American Journal of Archaeology, XLVIII (January-March, 1944), 64-75; “Evidence of Inflection in the ‘Chariot’ Tablets from Knossos,” Ibid., XLIX (April-June, 1945), 143-151, at 151 for “it is highly probable,” and 143 for “if a language.” Near the end of both these articles Miss Kober wrote the identical and—fortunately—totally misleading remark, “Further conjecture is useless.”
926 identical vowels and identical consonants: “Inflection in Linear Class B: 1—Declension,” Ibid., L (April-June, 1946), 268-276. No other article of what Miss Kober evidently intended to be a series ever appeared.
927 “total”: “Total’ in Minoan (Linear Class B),” Archiv Orientálni, XVII (1949), 386-398.
927 “tentative phonetic pattern”: “The Minoan Scripts: Fact and Fancy,” American Journal of Archaeology, LII (January-March, 1948), 82-103, at 98.
927 Ventris: Chadwick, 1-4; Leonard Cottrell, Realms of Gold (Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society Publishers, 1963), 7.
928 Bennett: Directory of American Scholars, 1957.
933 “Evidence”: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, LXXIII (1953), 84-103.
933 “Since my return”: Chadwick, 81.
934 Beattie: “Mr. Ventris’ Decipherment of the Minoan Linear B Script,” The Journal of Hellenic Studies, LXXVI (1956), 1-17, at 2, 8, 14.
934 sample texts: Documents; Chadwick.
935 “These palace archives”: Denys Page, History and the Homeric Iliad, Sather Classical Lectures, XXXI (Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 1959), 180-181.
936 wanax, basileus: Page, 188.
936 names in -eus: Page, 197.
936 “By seeing the Greeks”: From Mycenae to Homer (London: Methuen, 1958), 3.
937 McNeill: The Rise of the West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), 97. Another result might be the solution of Linear A, which takes off from the solution of Linear B, claimed by Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon of Brandeis University (“Link Greek Culture to Hebrew,” New York Herald Tribune [April 4, 1958], 1, 8; Cyrus H. Gordon, Before the Bible (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 206-217; Cyrus H. Gordon, “The Decipherment of Minoan,” Natural History, LXXII (November, 1963), 22-31; Rolland Emerson Wolfe, “Not from the Head of Zeus,” The Unitarian Register and The Universalist Leader (mid-summer, 1962), 14-16. However, not only has Dr. Gordon failed to convince me of the soundness of his method, whatever its linguistic merits or demerits, but also the criticisms directed against his thesis suggest that acceptance of it should, for the present, be withheld (Maurice Pope, “The Linear A Question,” Antiquity, XXXII [June, 1958], 97-99; M. I. Finley, “Hellas and Israel,” New Statesman, LXV (January 11, 1963), 47-48). Consequently I have not included his results.
Chapter 26 MESSAGES FROM OUTER SPACE
In these notes, IC refers to Interstellar Communication, ed. A. G. W. Cameron (New York: W. A. Benjamin, 1963), a valuable collection of reprints and original contributions by several authors on the problem, but unfortunately rather repetitious and badly arranged. I have cited authors and titles in it only where necessary. “Sullivan” refers to Walter Sullivan, We Are Not Alone: The Search for Intelligent Life on Other Worlds (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), a very thorough and workmanlike discussion on which I have leaned heavily. All references in the text to Cocconi and Morrison refer to Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison, “Searching for Interstellar Communications,” Nature, CLXXXIV (September 19, 1959), 844-846, reprinted, IC, 160-164. I am grateful to Frank Drake, William F. Friedman, and Mario Pei for reading a very early draft of what was to become this chapter, and, in the case of Drake and Friedman, offering some valuable suggestions.
938 “To follow knowledge”: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses.”
938 April 8, 1960: Drake, telephone interview, February 9, 1962.
939 “I wonder”: House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Astronautics, Panel on Science and Technology: Fourth Meeting, Hearings, 87:2 (March 21 and 22, 1962) (GPO, 1962), 73.
939 Green Bank conference: IC, 287-293; Sullivan, 245-265.
939 Russian report: “Russians Say a Cosmic Emission May Come From Rational Beings” (April 13, 1965), 1:6-7; “Russians Temper Space Wave View” (April 14, 1965), 3:1-4; “Radio Emissions From Space Spur Disagreement Between American and Soviet Astronomers” (April 18, 1965), 1-8, all The New York Times.
939 development of idea of extraterrestrial life: Sullivan.
940 Milton: Paradise Lost, viii.
940 Pope: An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1. 26.
943 Cocconi and Morrison spend a few days: Morrison, telephone interview, February 9, 1962.
944 “it may be worth”: Roy Bedichek, The Sense of Smell (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1960), 133.
945 bees: Frisch’s books and articles.
945 Edie: “Messages from Other Worlds,” letter to the editor, Science, CXXXV (April 13, 1962), 184.
946 Bracewell interstellar probe: IC, 239-241; Sullivan, 207-209; for criticism, IC, 263-264.
947 opaque screen: IC, 270; Sullivan, 221-222.
947 laser light: IC, 223-231; Sullivan, 209-217.
947 Tesla, Marconi, Todd: Sullivan, 177-179.
948 Green: CV (August, 1924), 27-28. Other discussions were those of H. Winfield Secor, “Hello Mars!” Electrical Experimentor, VII (April, 1920), 1248-50, 1302,1304, 1306-9; Clement Fezandie, “My Message to Mars,” Ibid., VIII (July, 1920), 267, 318-322.
948 Camp Alfred Vail listens: Captain John P. Ferriter, letter to William F. Friedman, September 5, 1924, quoted in Friedman, letter, November 13, 1960. Friedman thinks that the Ediphone cylinder recordings may still be at Fort Monmouth.
948 Jenkins: Friedman, letter, November 13, 1960. Friedman has photographic copies of the strips.
948 narrowing down of radio search and of star search: Sullivan. 950 Drake’s signal-isolation techniques: IC, 172, 174; Sullivan, 202.
950 “a place very far away”: IC, 172.
950 false signals: Drake, telephone interview; Sullivan, 204-205.
951 information the only thing worth traveling for: Morrison in IC, 262.
951 “No one can threaten”: IC, 142.
951 “I would say”: Panel on Science and Technology: Fourth Meeting, 74-75.
951 stray signals: J. A. Webb in IC, 178-191.
952 legacy for the children: IC, 142.
952 intellectual immortality: Sullivan, 290-291.
952 special calling signal: Sebastian von Hoerner in IC, 272-286.
952 Tesla: Sullivan, 177.
952 message as clear as possible: Frank Drake, letter, November 17, 1960.
952 cryptography in reverse: IC, 140.
953 “The data are uneven”: N. D. Andreyev, letter, October 6, 1965. Dr. Andreyev’s forthcoming book, “Statistical-Combinatory Methods in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics” will include a chapter named “Language Universals and Investigation of Unknown Languages,” extraterrestrial ones being meant. The principles of his statistical-combinatory method, as applied to human languages, may be found in his paper “Algorithms for the Statistical-Combinatory Modeling of Syntax, Word-Formation and Semantics,” published in Materialy po mate-maticheskoy lingvistika i mashinnomu perevodu, II (Leningrad University, 1963), which has been translated as Foreign Developments in Machine Translation and Information Processing, No. 161, United States, Department of Commerce, Office of Technical Services, Joint Publications Research Service, No. 26209. Dr. Andreyev has proposed an intermediary computer language for intercommunication on earth, and an intermediary language of the second order for communication with extraterrestrial beings, in his “Linguistic Aspects of Translation,” Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Linguists, Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 27-31, 1962, ed. Horace G. Lunt (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1964), 625-637 at 634.
953 artificial languages: The best recent discussion is M. Monnerot-Dumaine, Précis d’Interlinguistique (Paris: Librairie Maloine, 1960).
954 Lincos: Hans Freudenthal, “Towards a Cosmic Language,” Delta [Netherlands Institute for International Cultural Relations] (Summer, 1958), 37-48; Hans Freudenthal, Lincos: Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1960). George A. W. Boehm, “Are We Being Hailed from Interstellar Space?” Fortune, LXIII (March, 1961), 144-149, 193-194, has illustration at 148 of what such a message might look like recorded by a pen.
956 Lincos criticisms and replies: Maurits de Vries, letter, December 2, 1960; Lancelot Hogben, “Cosmical Language,” Nature, Supplement, CXCII (December 2, 1961), 826-827; Freudenthal, letters, February 19, 1960, and February 17, 1961.
956 Astraglossa: Lancelot Hogben, “Astraglossa, or First Steps in Celestial Syntax,” Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, XI (November, 1952), 258-274.
957 Galton’s proposal: “Intelligible Signals Between Neighboring Stars,” Fortnightly Review (November, 1896), 657-664.
958 Gauss, Littrow, Cros: Sullivan, 175.
959 Drake 551-digit message: forwarded by him. A less condensed form appears in Sullivan, 267-269.
959 “The content”: Drake’s notes to solution of 551-digit message.
960 Morrison television: IC, 268-269.
961 R. L. Carbrey: “Video Transmission over Telephone Cable Pairs by Pulse Code Modulation,” IRE Proceedings, XLVIII (September, 1960), 1546-1561.
962 dictionary, artificial language based upon efficiency: Kahn.
963 dolphins: John C. Lilly, Man and Dolphin (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1961); John C. Lilly, “Some considerations regarding basic mechanisms of positive and negative types of motivations,” American Journal of Psychiatry, CXV (December, 1958), 498-504, for “If we are ever.”
963 Whorf: See the collection of his writings, Language, Thought and Reality (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1956). To test his thesis, a logical language was synthesized; see James Cooke Brown, “Loglan,” Scientific American, CCII (June, 1960), 53-63.
964 outer-spacelings may think in terms of continua, aleph-null: Maurits de Vries, letter, December 2, 1960.
964 “be connected with”: Prof. F. Hoyle, “Recent Developments in Cosmology,” Nature, CCVIII (October 9, 1965), 111-114 at 114.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOR ILLUSTRATIONS
I am grateful to the following institutions for their kindness in granting permission for the reproduction as illustrations in this book of the following items, which belong to them:
Trustees of the British Museum, London. Medal by Matteo de’ Pasti of Leo Battista Alberti; Add. Mss. 32288, f. 102; 32292, f. 4; 32303, f. 30; 32307, folio unknown; 32499, f. 344; 37205, ff. 80, 249.
France, Ministere de I’Éducation Nationale, Bibliothèque Nationale. Gravure de Blaise de Vigenère sculpté par Thomas de Leu.
Great Britain, Public Record Office. Crown copyright acknowledged for S.P. 106/1, f. 58; S.P. 53/18, no. 55; P.R.O. 31/11/11.
London, The National Gallery. Painting by Rembrandt van Rijn of “Belshazzar’s Feast,” Accession No. 6350. Reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees, The National Gallery, London.
Magdalene College, Cambridge. Page of Diary of Samuel Pepys.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 17.3.756.1423, Jacob de Gheyn: Portrait of Philip van Marnix, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dick Fund, 1917.
The Master and Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge. Ms. 75.1, f. 30v.
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. Ta 641.
William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Benedict Arnold code letter to Major John André of 15 July 1780.
NOTES TO ILLUSTRATIONS
The full citations will be found in the notes to the text for each chapter.
Chapter 1
One o’clock message: NA, RG 319.
Japanese code page: DSDF, 894.727/3-8.
HARUNA message: (PHA, 38:250): Department of the Navy.
Yoshikawa final message: (PHA, 38:233): Department of the Navy.
14th part :NA, RG 3
19.
Japanese note: DSDF, 711.94/2594-7/8.
Chapter 2
Hieroglyphs: E. Drioton, “Essai sur la cryptographie privée de la fin de la XVIIIe dynastie,” 24, showing equivalents established by Drioton from stele V 93 of Leyden.
Cuneiform: Tablettes d’Uruk, Textes cunéiformes, VI, No. 51r.
Siamese cryptography: Frankfurter, 4.
Rök stone: George Stephens, The Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England (Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate, 1884), III, 46.
Ogham cryptography: Royal Irish Academy, “Book of Ballymote,” 313.
Chaucer: “The Equatorie of the Planetis,” Cambridge University, Peterhouse, Ms. 75.1, f. 30v.
Davidian alphabet: Ahmed bin Abubekr Bin Washih, Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained, trans. Joseph Hammer (London, 1806), 39.
Chapter 3
Simeone de Crema: Mantua, Archivio di Stato, Busta E.I. 2a, No. 32.
Medici nomenclator: Florence, Archivio di Stato, Cifrari della Repubblica e medicei, No. 457.
Cortés letter: Spain, Archivio General de Indias, Papeles de Justicia de India, Autos entre partes vistos en el Consejo de Indias, Audencia de Mexico, Estante 51, Cajón 6, Legajo 6.23.
Marnix solution: Great Britain, Public Record Office, State Papers 106/1, f. 58.
Forged postscript: Great Britain, Public Record Office, State Papers 53/18, no. 55.
Chapter 4
Alberti cipher disk: Meister, Päpstlichen, 28.
Trithemius title page: 1518 edition. Caption description by Dodgson, 405-406, corrected by Chacornac, 73-74.
Ave Maria: 1518 edition of Polygraphiae.
Digraphic system: Porta, 90.
Porta cipher disk: Porta, 73.
Chapter 5
Wallis solution: Add. Ms. 32499, f. 344.
Decyphering Branch solution: Add. Ms. 32307.
Church cipher message: The Library of Congress, Papers of George Washington, XVIII, 119.
Benedict Arnold message: University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library, Sir Henry Clinton Papers.
Lovell’s Cornwallis solution: NA, Papers of the Continental Congress, Item 51, I, f. 722.
