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> Sometimes, this never-ending string of letters would execute what was called an ox-turn, first reading left to right, then switching to read back from right to left.

What a fail! Perfect opportunity missed to use the word "boustrophedon": and in the matching historic context, too.




Having long palindromes would be super helpful in these awful documents.


Could be. Note that the Greeks actually mirrored the individual letters in the lines going the other way. So there is no ambiguity, as long as a line contains some asymmetric characters; you know when your eyes have landed on a right-left line, regardless of palindromes and such.




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