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Encyclopedia > Epigraphic
The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum.
The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum.

Epigraphy (Greek, ἐπιγραφή — "written upon") is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved into stone or other durable materials, or cast in metal, the science of classifying them as to cultural context and date, elucidating them and assessing what conclusions can be deduced from them. A person studying this is called an epigrapher or epigraphist. Download high resolution version (768x1024, 151 KB)The Rosetta Stone in British Museum, photo by User:Matijap File links The following pages link to this file: Rosetta Stone Categories: GFDL images ... Download high resolution version (768x1024, 151 KB)The Rosetta Stone in British Museum, photo by User:Matijap File links The following pages link to this file: Rosetta Stone Categories: GFDL images ... The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Buro Happold and Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ...

Contents

Scope

Epigraphy is a primary tool of archaeology when dealing with literate cultures. The US Library of Congress classifies epigraphy as one of the "Auxiliary Sciences of History". Epigraphy also helps identify a forgery, as in the James Ossuary. Since epigraphy is a science of the particular, references to epigraphic evidence appear in most Wikipedia entries discussing aspects of Ancient history. Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Forgery is the process of making or adapting objects or documents (see false document), with the intention to deceive. ... The James Ossuary is a sepulchral urn for containing bones, which was found in Israel in 2002 and was claimed to have been the ossuary of James, the brother of Jesus. ... Ancient history is the study of significant cultural and political events from the beginning of human history until the Early Middle Ages. ...


The study of ancient handwriting, usually in ink, is a separate field, Paleography. Penmanship is the art of writing clearly and quickly. ... Palaeography, literally old writing, (from the Greek words paleos = old and grapho = write) is the study of script. ...


The character of the writing, the subject of epigraphy, is a matter quite separate from the nature of the text, which is studied in itself. Texts are usually inscribed in stone for public view (or the view of the god, as in the Persian Behistun inscription), and so they are essentially different from the written texts of each culture. Not all inscribed texts are public, however: in Mycenean culture the deciphered texts of "Linear B" were revealed to be largely used for economic and administrative record keeping. Informal inscribed texts are "graffiti" in its original sense. The Behistun Inscription, carved into a cliffside, gives the same text in three languages, telling the story of King Darius conquests, with the names of twenty-three provinces subject to him. ... This article is about the ancient syllabary. ... Graffiti (strictly, as singular, graffito, from the Italian — graffiti being the plural) is graphics applied without authorization to publicly viewable surfaces. ...


History

The science of epigraphy has been developing steadily since the 16th century. Principles of epigraphy vary culture by culture, and the infant science in European hands concentrated on Latin inscriptions at first. Individual contributions have been made by epigraphers such as Georg Fabricius (1516–1571); August Wilhelm Zumpt (1815–1877); Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903); Emil Hübner (1834–1901); Franz Cumont (1868–1947); Louis Robert (1904–1985). Georg Fabricius (1516–July 17, 1571), Protestant German poet, historian and archaeologist, was born at Chemnitz in upper Saxony on April 23 1516, and educated at Leipzig. ... August Wilhelm Zumpt (1815-1877) was a classical scholar, known chiefly in connection with Latin epigraphy. ... Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (30 November 1817–1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar and historian, generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. ... Emil Hübner (July 7, 1834 - February 21, 1901) was a German classical scholar. ... Franz-Valéry-Marie Cumont (Aalst, Belgium, January 3, 1868 - Brussels, August 25, 1947) was a Belgian archaeologist and historian, a philologist and student of epigraphy, who brought these often isolated specialties to bear on the syncretic mystery religions of Late Antiquity, notably Mithraism. ...


The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, begun by Mommsen and other scholars, has been published in Berlin since 1863, with wartime interruptions. It is the largest and most extensive collection of Latin inscriptions. New fascicles are still produced as the recovery of inscriptions continues. The Corpus is arranged geographically: all inscriptions from Rome are contained in volume 6. This volume has the greatest number of inscriptions; volume 6, part 8, fascicle 3 was just recently published (2000). Specialists depend on such on-going series of volumes in which newly-discovered inscriptions are published, often in Latin, not unlike the biologists' Zoological Record— the raw material of history. The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. ... The word fascicle derives from the Latin fascis (bundle). Fascicles are the sections of a book, usually a reference work, that because of its length, is issued in parts so that the information may be made available to the public as soon as possible rather than waiting years or decades...


Greek epigraphy has unfolded in the hands of a different team, with different corpora. There are two. The first is Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum of which four volumes came out, again at Berlin, 1825-1877. This marked a first attempt at a comprehensive publication of Greek inscriptions copied from all over the Greek-speaking world. Only advanced students still consult it, for better editions of the texts have superseded it. The second, modern corpus is Inscriptiones Graecae arranged geographically under categories: decrees, catalogues, honorary titles, funeral inscriptions, various., all presented in Latin, to preserve the international neutrality of the field of classics. In linguistics, a corpus (plural corpora) or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts (now usually electronically stored and processed). ... Classics, particularly within the Western University tradition, when used as a singular noun, means the study of the language, literature, history, art, and other aspects of Greek and Roman culture during the time frame known as classical antiquity. ...


Other such series include the Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum (Etruscan inscriptions), Corpus Inscriptionum Crucesignatorum Terrae Sanctae (Crusaders' inscriptions), Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum, (Celtic inscriptions), Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum (Iranian inscriptions) and so forth. The Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum (English: Body of Etruscan Inscriptions) is a collection of various texts and documentation written in the ancient Etruscan language that had been collected by Karl Pauli and his followers since 1885. ...


Notable inscriptions

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. ... The Behistun Inscription, carved into a cliffside, gives the same text in three languages, telling the story of King Darius conquests, with the names of twenty-three provinces subject to him. ... The Laguna Copperplate inscription, found 1989 in Laguna de Bay, in the metroplex of Manila, Philippines, has inscribed on it a date of Saka era 822, corresponding to April 21st, 900CE according to Vedic astronomy, containing words from Sanskrit, old Javanese, old Malay and old Tagalog, releasing its bearer, Namwaran... Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England has in its grounds an 18th-century monument commissioned by Admiral George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, bearing an inscription that is thought to be an uncracked ciphertext. ... A Greek hagiographical text, which has, however, undergone alterations, and a Greek inscription of the 2nd century have made known to us a certain Abercius, Bishop of Hieropolis, in Phrygia, who, about the middle of the century in question, left his episcopal city and visited Rome. ... A fairly substantial number of Arabian inscriptions survive from the pre-Islamic era; however, very few are in the Arabic alphabet. ... Orhon (or Orkhon) inscriptions are the oldest known Turkic writings, which were erected near the Orhon River between 732 and 735 in honour of two Kokturk princes named Kul and Bilge. ... The Duenos inscription, as recorded by Heinrich Dressel. ... The Bryggen inscriptions are a find of some 600 runic inscriptions on wood (mostly pine) and bone found from 1955 and forth at Bryggen (and its surroundings) in Bergen, Norway. ... The Bitola Inscription of Tsar Ivan Alexander The Bitola Inscription is an inscription made by order of Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Vladislav in 1015 or 1016 in connection with the fortification of the Bitola fortress. ... A Crucifix with the INRI plaque attached, the Holy Spirit Church in Košice, Slovakia A Crucifix with the stylized INRI plaque attached, the cornfields near Mureck in rural Styria, Austria INRI is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM, which translates to English as: Jesus the...

Types of inscription

An abecedarium is an inscription consisting of the letters of the alphabet in order. ... A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which the capital letters, interpreted in Roman numerals, stand for a particular date if rearranged. ... An epitaph ( literally: on the gravestone in ancient Greek) is text honoring the deceased, most commonly inscribed on a tombstone or plaque. ... Headstones in the Japanese Cemetry in Broome, Western Australia A cemetery in rural Spain A typical late 20th century headstone in the United States A headstone, tombstone or gravestone is a marker, normally carved from stone, placed over or next to the site of a burial. ... Ex libris (Latin: from books) is a phrase often used in an ownership inscription or a bookplate, usually found on the inside of a book cover or on one of the first few pages. ... Memento mori is a Latin phrase that may be freely translated as Remember that you are mortal, Remember you will die, or Remember your death. It names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose, which is to remind people... A Monumental Inscription is an inscription, typically carved in stone, on a grave marker or memorial plaque. ... A rune stone in Lund Rune stones are stones with runic inscriptions dating from the early Middle Ages but are found to have been used most prominently during the Viking Age. ...

See also

Other studies of the writing of texts include: The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. ... The EpiDoc Collaborative, building recommendations for structured markup of epigraphic documents in TEI XML, was originally formed in 2000 by scholars at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Tom Elliott, the former director of the Ancient World Mapping Center, with Hugh Cayless and Amy Hawkins. ... A writing system, also called a script, is used to visually record a language with symbols. ... Petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, southern Utah, USA Petroglyphs are images incised in rock, usually by prehistoric, especially Neolithic, peoples. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... in 1930 was when the first traces of humans where discovered by cochroaches. ... Historiography is the study of the practice of history. ... In historical scholarship, a primary source is a document or other source of information that was created at or near the time being studied, often by the people being studied. ...

Palaeography (British) or paleography (American) (from the Greek palaiós, old and graphein, to write) is the study of ancient and medieval manuscripts, independent of the language (Koine Greek, Classical Latin, Medieval Latin, Old English, etc. ... Penmanship is the art of writing clearly and quickly. ... Papyrology is the study of ancient literature as preserved in manuscripts written on papyrus, the most common form of paper in the Egyptian, Greek and Roman worlds. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... Numismatics is the scientific study of money and its history in all its varied forms. ... Graffiti (strictly, as singular, graffito, from the Italian — graffiti being the plural) is graphics applied without authorization to publicly viewable surfaces. ... The orthography of a language is the set of symbols (glyphs and diacritics) used to write a language, as well as the set of rules describing how to write these glyphs, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... For the origin and evolution of fonts, see History of western typography. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
Untitled Document (402 words)
An epigraph is an effective literary tool that some writers utilize to focus the reader toward the theme, purpose, or concerns behind the work [12].
Generally a brief quotation taken from another piece of literature, the epigraph is oftentimes not a direct commentary upon the work but used to establish a mindset or offer insight into the factors that contributed to the manifestation of the work.
The epigraph to A Raisin in the Sun is Langston Hughes' poem "Montage of a Dream Deferred" which was written as a critique of Harlem life.
Epigraph: Citation as Authorial Guide (434 words)
The epigraph is an unusual, though not uncommon, form of citation.
This shadow looms large because it is formed not only by the body of the epigraph but also by the scholar, philosopher, or poet, and textual source from which it is taken.
As Eliot's use of the epigraph in Middlemarch demonstrates, the epigraph is not a simplistic citation device, but rather a complex system between texts, authors, and readers, which the author uses to control the reading of the text and to establish an ethos.
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