ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS / EGYPT "Sacred Symbols of the Dogon will challenge the reader to seriously consider that ancient civilizations possessed a scientific sophistication rivaling our present-day theories of matter and the fundamental forces of physics. Highly recommended for anyone who has questioned the mainstream view of ancient civilization as scientifically primitive." --John Dering, chief scientist for lasers and special projects at Scientific Applications & Research Associates (SARA), Inc. In his first book, The Science of the Dogon, Laird Scranton demonstrated that the cosmological structure described in the myths and drawings of the Dogon runs parallel to modern science (atomic theory, quantum theory, and string theory), with Dogon drawings often taking the same form as accurate scientific diagrams that relate to the formation of matter. Scranton also pointed to the close resemblance between the keywords and component elements of Dogon cosmology and those of ancient Egypt as well as to the implication that ancient cosmology may also be about actual science. Sacred Symbols of the Dogon uses these parallels as the starting point for a new interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphic language. By substituting Dogon cosmological drawings for equivalent glyph-shapes in Egyptian words, a new way of reading and interpreting the Egyptian hieroglyphs emerges. Scranton shows how each hieroglyph constitutes an entire concept and that their meanings are scientific in nature. Using the Dogon symbols as a "Rosetta stone," he reveals references within the ancient Egyptian language that define the full range of scientific components of matter--from massless waves to the completed atom--even suggesting direct correlations to a fully realized unified field theory. LAIRD SCRANTON is an independent software designer who became interested in Dogon mythology and symbolism in the early 1990s. He has studied ancient myth, language, and cosmology since 1997 and has been a lecturer at Colgate University. He is the author of The Science of the Dogon and also appears in John Anthony West's Magical Egypt DVD series. He lives in Albany, New York.