THE FIRST CODES: Reading the landscape Tracking animals Bushcraft signs Early petroglyphs First writing systems Reading cuneiform Alphabets and scripts The evolution of numerical systems Linear A & Linear B The Phaistos disc The mystery of hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs revealed The riddle of the Maya Indigenous traditions SECTS, SYMBOLS, & SECRET SOCIETIES: Early Christians The pentangle Divination Heresies, sects and cults Rosslyn Chapel Alchemy Kabbalism Necromancy Rosicrucians Freemasons CODES FOR SECRECY: The art of concealment For your eyes only Frequency analysis Disguising ciphers Medieval cipher systems The Babington plot The da Vinci code Ciphertexts and keys Grilles Spies and black chambers Mechanical devices Hidden in plain sight COMMUNICATING AT A DISTANCE: Long-distance alarms Flag signals Semaphore and the telegraph Morse code Person to person CODES OF WAR: Classical codes of war The 'indecipherable' code The great cipher 19th-century innovations Military map codes Field signals The Zimmermann telegram Enigma: the 'unbreakable' system WWII codes and code breakers Cracking Enigma Navajo windtalkers Cold war codes CODES OF THE UNDERWORLD: Street slang From Samurai to Yakuza Cockney rhyming slang The Mob Ramblers' sign language Cops and codes The Zodiac mystery The Zodiac legacy Graffiti Youth codes Digital subversion

ENCODING THE WORLD: Describing time

Describing form

Force and motion

Mathematics: the indescribable

The periodic table

Defining the world

Encoding the landscape

Navigation

Taxonomy

The genetic code

Genetic ancestry

Using the genetic code

CODES OF CIVILIZATION: Codes of construction

Taoist mysticism

South Asian sacred imagery

The language of Buddhism

The patterns of Islam

Mysteries of the North

Medieval visual sermons

Stained glass windows

Renaissance iconography

The age of reason

Victoriana

Textiles, carpets, and embroidery

CODES OF COMMERCE: Commercial codes

Brands & trademarks

Makers' marks

Codes of work

Currency and counterfeits

The book in your hands

CODES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR: Body language

Survival signals

Sporting codes

Etiquette

Dressing your message

Heraldry

Formal dress codes

Decoding the unconscious

The language of dreams

VISUAL CODES: Signs & signage

Highway codes

Challenged communication

Describing music

Musical scores

Animal talk

Extraterrestrials

IMAGINARY CODES: Modern magic and mayhem

The Bible code

The Beale Papers

Mystery and imagination

Fantasy codes

Doomsday codes

THE DIGITAL AGE. The first computers

Supercomputers

Talking to computers

Alice, Bob, & Eve

Future medicine

Where are codes taking us?