Boustrophedon is an ancient way of writing manuscripts and other inscriptions in which, rather than going from left to right as in modern English, or right to left as in Arabic, alternate lines must be read in opposite directions. The name is borrowed from the Greek language. Its etymology is from βους, "ox" + στρεφειν, "to turn" (cf. the etymology of strophe), because the hand of the writer goes back and forth, so that the resulting inscription resembles the path of an ox that draws a plow across a field and turns at the end of each row to return in the opposite direction. A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... Inscriptions are words or letters written, engraved, painted, or otherwise traced on a surface and can appear in contexts both small and monumental. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Arabic (العربية) is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... The Greek language (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA – Hellenic) is an Indo-European language with a documented history of some 3,000 years. ... Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ... Strophe (Greek, to turn) is a term in versification which properly means a turn, as from one foot to another, or from one side of a chorus to the other. ...

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Many ancient languages of the Mediterranean were frequently or typically written boustrophedon, but in Greek it is found most commonly on pre-historic and archaic inscriptions, becoming less and less popular throughout the Hellenic period. Ancient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. ...

The stone head statues of Easter Island also bear boustrophedonic script. The ancient language (Rongorongo) in which it is written has never been deciphered. In Rongorongo, the text in alternate lines was rotated 180 degrees, not mirrored. Easter Island and its location Easter Island (Polynesian: Rapa Nui (Great Rapa), Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is an island in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to Chile. ... Rongo rongo, the hieroglyphic script of Easter Island, has remained a mystery since its discovery. ...

The most common modern usage of mirror type of boustrophedon writing can be found on the front of ambulances, where the word "AMBULANCE" is often written in very large mirrored text, so that drivers see the word the right way around in their rear-view mirror. Ambulance An ambulance is a vehicle designated for the transport of sick or injured people. ... The rear-view mirror of a Mazda 626. ...

By analogy, the term may be used in other areas to describe this kind of alternation of motion or writing. An analogy is a comparison between two different things, in order to highlight some form of similarity. ...

For example, it is occasionally used to describe the print head motion of certain dot matrix computer printers. In that case, while the print head moves in opposite directions on alternate lines, the printed text is not in boustrophedon format. See also the corresponding entry [1] (http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/boustrophedon.html) in the Jargon File of hacker slang. A dot matrix is an array of dots used to generate characters, symbols and images. ... A computer printer is a computer peripheral device that produces a hard copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics, usually on paper) from data stored in a computer connected to it. ... The Jargon File is a glossary of hacker slang. ... Hacker is a term used to describe different types of computer experts. ... Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ...

Perhaps the most important example of boustrophedonics is the numbering scheme of sections within survey townships in the United States and Canada. In both countries, survey townships are divided into a 6-by-6 grid of 36 sections. In the US Public Land Survey System, Section 1 of a township is in the northeast corner, and the numbering proceeds boustrophedonically until Section 36 is reached in the southeast corner. Canada's Dominion Land Survey also uses boustophedronic numbering, but starts at the southeast corner. In the American Public Land Survey System, a township refers to a unit of land, that is nominally six miles (9. ... This General Land Office map shows the theoretical sectioning of a standard survey township. ... The Dominion Land Survey is the method used to divide most of western Canada into one-square-mile sections for agricultural and other purposes. ...

Another example is boustrophedon transform, known in mathematics. History Main article: History of mathematics In addition to recognizing how to count concrete objects, prehistoric peoples also recognized how to count abstract quantities, like time -- days, seasons, years. ...

External links

• A Boustrophedon text reader (http://traevoli.com/boust/)