Isabel Maru's Notebook was the workbook of World War I weapons chemist Isabel Maru. Maru kept notes about all her work and what it was being used for within its covers, written in a hybrid script of Ottoman and Sumerian.[1][2]
History[]
At some point in her career, chemist Isabel Maru began to keep her notes about her work and projects in the notebook. Perhaps realizing the importance of her work, she kept her notes in a script that was a hybrid of Ancient Sumerian and Ottoman, and thus difficult to translate.
While undercover with the Imperial German Army somewhere in the western Ottoman Empire, American spy Steve Trevor stole the book from Maru's workshop. This did not go unnoticed, however, and he was subsequently chased until he crash-landed in the waters of Themyscira, the island of the Amazons.
Convinced that it held information that could change the course of the war, Trevor was desperate to get the book back to London. Shortly after arriving in London with the Princess of Themyscira, Diana, Trevor did just that.
Dr. Maru studies her notebook while working in her lab.
When cryptologists with the British Army were unable to discern what language it was written in, Diana, herself a polyglot, identified its script as a blend of Ottoman and Ancient Sumerian. After translating, she and the rest of the British Army realized that Maru was working on a new type of poison gas that gas-masks would be useless against..
After revealing himself to Diana, Ares also explained that it was he manipulated the notebook to help Maru develop her signature hydrogen-based mustard gas.[1] The book was presumably left in the hands of the British Army after Trevor and Diana delivered it to their headquarters
Appearance[]
Diana studying what Dr. Maru has written about her work
The book itself is bound in some sort of green leather, bordered with what appears to be bronze, and has a marbled pattern on its front and back covers. A geometric pattern in the same metal also adorns its front, and a small clasp ensures that it remains close. Its pages are faintly-lined graphing paper, which allow Maru to both keep her script straight and draw diagrams relating to her work.[1]
Trivia[]
- An Assyriologist-in-training who watched the movie looked at the pages of the notebook and determined that the script used for the movie was actually Neo-Assyrian Cuneiform, not Sumerian - but that also actually translated into intelligible instructions on the chemical makeup of a gas and its purpose.[3]