Boustrophedon Writing

Boustrophedon-style writing consists of writing every other line upside down alternately. The text thus follows a kind of serpentiform furrow from left to right then from right to left (similar to the movement/turns/zigzag of an ox plowing a field).

Write the first line from left to right then, once reached the end of this line, write the next line from right to left. Continue to alternate this sequence with each successive row until the text is finished.

One can reverse/flip multiple lines at once, one can begin to line N, or ignore multiple line that are non-reversed.

If the text is short, the inversion can be performed for each word instead of each line.

Boustrophedon comes from greek language, the word is made with beef (bous) and the verb to turn (strophos).

Boustrophedon Scripture was commonly used on media such as clay tablets, parchments, stelae, and other engravable or writable materials. These media allowed bidirectional writing and saved space.

Traces of Boustrophedon writing system have been found some centuries before Christ, both among the ancient Greeks, the Etruscans, or in Mesopotamia.