The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts

The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts PDF Author: Marilina Betrò
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111360806
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Written artefacts are traditionally studied because of their content. Material aspects of these artefacts enrich the study of ancient history in many ways. Eleven case studies in five sections on the ancient world, including the Near East, Egypt, the Mediterranean, China and India, demonstrate the impact of a holistic approach that considers materiality and content alike. Following an introductory sketch of relevant research, the first section, 'Methodological Considerations', critically examines the limitations the evidence available imposes on our understanding. 'Early Uses of Writing' addresses material and spatial aspects of inscriptions, and their communicative functions over the textual ones. The third section, 'Material Features', deals with clay, wooden and papyrus manuscripts and demonstrates the importance of an integrated approach. The contributions to 'Co-presence of Written Artefacts' take into account that written artefacts come in clusters. The final section, 'Cultural Encounters', presents studies on the interactions between social strata and ethnic groups, challenging previous ideas. The volume contributes to the comparative study of written artefacts in ancient history, stimulating cross-disciplinary and -cultural research.

The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts

The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts PDF Author: Marilina Betrò
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111360806
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Get Book Here

Book Description
Written artefacts are traditionally studied because of their content. Material aspects of these artefacts enrich the study of ancient history in many ways. Eleven case studies in five sections on the ancient world, including the Near East, Egypt, the Mediterranean, China and India, demonstrate the impact of a holistic approach that considers materiality and content alike. Following an introductory sketch of relevant research, the first section, 'Methodological Considerations', critically examines the limitations the evidence available imposes on our understanding. 'Early Uses of Writing' addresses material and spatial aspects of inscriptions, and their communicative functions over the textual ones. The third section, 'Material Features', deals with clay, wooden and papyrus manuscripts and demonstrates the importance of an integrated approach. The contributions to 'Co-presence of Written Artefacts' take into account that written artefacts come in clusters. The final section, 'Cultural Encounters', presents studies on the interactions between social strata and ethnic groups, challenging previous ideas. The volume contributes to the comparative study of written artefacts in ancient history, stimulating cross-disciplinary and -cultural research.

The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts

The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts PDF Author: Marilina Betrò
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783111359021
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Written artefacts are traditionally studied because of their content. Material aspects of these artefacts enrich the study of ancient history in many ways. Eleven case studies in five sections on the ancient world, including the Near East, Egypt, the Mediterranean, China and India, demonstrate the impact of a holistic approach that considers materiality and content alike. Following an introductory sketch of relevant research, the first section, 'Methodological Considerations', critically examines the limitations the evidence available imposes on our understanding. 'Early Uses of Writing' addresses material and spatial aspects of inscriptions, and their communicative functions over the textual ones. The third section, 'Material Features', deals with clay, wooden and papyrus manuscripts and demonstrates the importance of an integrated approach. The contributions to 'Co-presence of Written Artefacts' take into account that written artefacts come in clusters. The final section, 'Cultural Encounters', presents studies on the interactions between social strata and ethnic groups, challenging previous ideas. The volume contributes to the comparative study of written artefacts in ancient history, stimulating cross-disciplinary and -cultural research.

Writing from Invention to Decipherment

Writing from Invention to Decipherment PDF Author: Silvia Ferrara
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198908768
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Writing from Invention to Decipherment contains a wealth of global scholarship on ancient writing systems from China, Mesopotamia, Central America, and the Mediterranean, to more recent newly created scripts such as the Rongorongo from Easter Island, the Caroline Island scripts, as well as the alphabet. The aim is to dig into the foundations of writing, showcasing the complexities and varieties of scripts, from their invention to the potential decipherment of poorly understood scripts. The volume offers state-of-the-art research on undeciphered scripts from the Aegean (as for example, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A) or not completely deciphered (as for example Maya) scripts. From a methodological perspective, these contributions lay out how and why writing was invented, who used it, and to what ends. Here writing is presented as a multi-modal cultural phenomenon, that intersects and transcends neat discipline boundaries, within an inclusive approach bridging archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, and cognitive studies.

Talking Images

Talking Images PDF Author: Silvia Ferrara
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 104011413X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This innovative collection offers a holistic portrait of the multimodal communication potential of images from the Upper Paleolithic through to today, showcasing image-based creativity throughout the centuries. The volume seeks to extend the boundaries of our understanding of what language and writing can do to show how language can be understood as part of broader codes, as well as how images and figural objects can contribute to meaning-making in communication. The book is divided into four parts, each exploring a different dimension of the interplay between representation, symbolic meaning, and perception in the study of images, drawing on case studies from around the world. The first part looks at cognitive approaches to the earliest symbol-making while the second considers the interaction between images and writing in early scripts. The third part addresses images outside their boxes, showcasing how ancient communication devices can be reinterpreted. The final part features chapters reflecting on embodied semiotic approaches to the representation of images. This book will be of interest to scholars in semiotics, archaeology, cognitive psychology, and linguistic and cultural anthropology.

The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts

The Ancient World Revisited: Material Dimensions of Written Artefacts PDF Author: Marilina Betrò, Jesper Eidem, Gianluca Miniaci, Michael Friedrich, Cécile Michel
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111361187
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description


The Materiality of Text – Placement, Perception, and Presence of Inscribed Texts in Classical Antiquity

The Materiality of Text – Placement, Perception, and Presence of Inscribed Texts in Classical Antiquity PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004379436
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Written by an international cast of experts, The Materiality of Text showcases a wide range of innovative methodologies from ancient history, literary studies, epigraphy, and art history and provides a multi-disciplinary perspective on the physicality of writing in antiquity. The contributions focus on epigraphic texts in order to gauge questions of their placement, presence, and perception: starting with an analysis of the forms of writing and its perception as an act of physical and cultural intervention, the volume moves on to consider the texts’ ubiquity and strategic positioning within epigraphic, literary, and architectural spaces. The contributors rethink modern assumptions about the processes of writing and reading and establish novel ways of thinking about the physical forms of ancient texts.

Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field

Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field PDF Author: Jörg Quenzer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110384825
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Script and writing were among the most important inventions in human history, and until the invention of printing, the handwritten book was the primary medium of literary and cultural transmission. Although the study of manuscripts is already quite advanced for many regions of the world, no unified discipline of ‘manuscript studies’ has yet evolved which is capable of treating handwritten books from East Asia, India and the Islamic world equally alongside the European manuscript tradition. This book, which aims to begin the interdisciplinary dialogue needed to arrive at a truly systematic and comparative approach to manuscript cultures worldwide, brings together papers by leading researchers concerned with material, philological and cultural aspects of different manuscript traditions.

Life in Medieval Landscapes

Life in Medieval Landscapes PDF Author: R. J. Silvester
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781905119400
Category : City and town life
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This title presents new studies on key themes in the economic and social history of the Middle Ages. Covering the nature of landscape regions in Britain and Ireland and studies of labour and lordship, it focusses on medieval England and understanding the lives of peasants and labourers.

The Materiality of Texts from Ancient Egypt

The Materiality of Texts from Ancient Egypt PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004375279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
The volume The Materiality of Texts from Ancient Egypt contains nine contributions from well-known papyrologists, Egyptologists, archaeologists and technical specialists. They discuss the materiality of ancient writing and writing supports in various ways through methodological considerations and through practical case studies from the early Pharaonic to the Late Antique periods in Egypt, including Greek and Egyptian papyri and ostraca, inscriptions and graffiti. The articles in this volume present new approaches to the study of textual material and scribal practice, especially in the light of the ongoing development of digital techniques that uncover new information from ancient writing materials. The aim of the book is to encourage researchers of ancient texts to consider the benefits of using these new methods and technological resources.

Scientific Methods and Cultural Heritage

Scientific Methods and Cultural Heritage PDF Author: Gilberto Artioli
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199548269
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
The scientific analysis of cultural heritage materials poses specific and often difficult analytical challenges. This book attempts to rationalize the links between the most commonly asked questions in archaeology, art history, and conservation with the potential answers resulting from the vast array of scientific techniques presently available.