Boustrophedon

The name is Greek for "turning like an ox" pulling a plough across a field. The reader follows the text down the surface without returning to the same margin. It appears in early Greek, Etruscan, South Arabian and other alphabets, and on the Rongorongo tablets in a reversed form. For a decipherer it matters because letter shapes can be mirrored on alternate lines and because word order on a damaged surface depends on knowing which way each line runs. The Etruscan Tabula Capuana is written this way, whereas most Etruscan inscriptions run consistently right to left [@cristofani1995capuana] [@rix2008etruscan].