EPIGRAPHY

the study of written matter recorded on hard or durable material. It is a prime tool in recovering much of the firsthand record of antiquity. Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions from the earliest civilizations through the present day, their interpretation and their classification. Preserved in materials that range in durability from papyrus to stone, inscriptions are often the only surviving records of ancient historical events and of extinct cultures, their languages, and their systems of writing. Epigraphy attracted the interest of historians as early as Polybius (204122 BC) and Thucydides, and the renewed study that was begun during the Renaissance has culminated in comprehensive editions by modern scholars that gather inscriptions from virtually every major source. Epigraphs are classified as either monumental, those intended for preservation; archival, those intended as records; and incidental, as in graffiti. Because present techniques of historiography are of relatively late origin, inscriptions of all three types are frequently invaluable in separating historical fact and chronology from the personal and legendary accounts of other written documents. Inscriptions from ancient Mesopotamia show the processes of cultural evolution from the earliest Sumerian communities through the later periods of Assyrian and Babylonian domination. From the Sumerians, surviving documents include a chronology of kings, legendary songs that supplied the traditional material for the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, and a number of prayers, proverbs, prophecies, and other ritual and literary texts. Other inscriptions from this region include records of commercial transactions and legal proceedings, and the monumental legal code on the stela of Hammurabi, dating from about 1750 BC. Cuneiform Akkadian inscriptions are also important as the primary international medium of writing during the most crucial epochs of Egyptian civilization. The bulk of Egyptian epigraphy consists of personalized historical accounts, of which many survive from as early as the 4th dynasty (26132494 BC). These documents became increasingly prominent during the large-scale expansionist campaigns of the 18th dynasty, and their eventual decline parallels Egypt's replacement as a major power by the kingdoms of Babylonia and Assyria. Extant religious texts consist of detailed records of dramatic ritual, ceremonies for the dead, and numerous prophetic and magical writings. Narratives of the creation myths of Atum and Ptah, hymns to the gods, and amatory and other secular lyrics are also preserved in inscriptions. Elsewhere in the ancient Middle East, historical inscriptions are plentiful from the height of the Hittite Empire (preserved at Bogazky in Asia Minor), and the period following the decline of the Hittites can be traced through later Syrian and Palestinian inscriptions, which also mark the replacement of cuneiform with Hittite and Semitic systems of writing. Persian epigraphs from the Achaemenian Empire of the 6th century BC that survive in several different languages are of particular value for linguistic analysis and for comparison with Greek historical accounts of the same era. An important body of epigraphs also survives from ancient India, though the absence of a linear conception of history and the mixture of legend and myth make them unreliable as historical documents. However, Asoka's reign over most of India, beginning in the 3rd century BC, has left inscriptions whose historicity is supported by references to foreign political events of known date. The historicity of Chinese inscriptions from roughly the 23rd century BC on has been established through comparisons with archaeological evidence and nonepigraphic documents. A strong Chinese influence is detectable through epigraphs from the Central Asian Turk dynasty of the 8th century AD. The decipherment in 1952 of the long-unintelligible Minoan Linear B tablets has been widely accepted as evidence that the spoken language of Cretans and Mycenaeans during the 2nd millennium BC was a form of Greek. (Some authorities reject the decipherment of the tablets as Greek.) Though these Linear B inscriptions consist primarily of inventories, they supply direct evidence of social and economic structures and demonstrate the Mycenaean origin of classical Greek religion. The production of epigraphs in later Greece shows an increase that parallels the spread of literacy, though inscriptional historiography is minimal and is rivaled by a sophisticated literary tradition. The epigraphs that have survived from the Roman Empire, though highly standardized, exhibit wide stylistic and linguistic variations. Besides Latin, they were commonly written in Greek and Oscan, and their extensive use of abbreviations and of Etruscan dialect often make interpretation problematic. Roman epigraphs of historical significance were not produced before the 2nd century BC; and, although that era has left important legal inscriptions, most Roman law was recorded in nonepigraphic media. More common are inscriptions that record ritual practices of religions, as well as epitaphs. In northern Europe, where writing was a late development, inscriptions are few, though some of Celtic origin survive. Runic messages, carved in a Germanic alphabet or in one of its European derivatives and dating from about 200 BC, are often commemorative or dedicatory or take the form of epitaphs. Because epigraphs are generally executed soon after the occasions they commemorate, the dating of the inscription itself through radiocarbon or stratigraphic analysis or through paleographic analysis of the script and style often provides a key to the chronology of historical events. In many instances they are the only available evidence, while in others they may help to reinforce or refute the assertions of ancient historiographers. Their records of extinct and obsolete languages are often crucial in tracing the origin, evolution, and migration of ancient cultural and linguistic families and in determining the relationships among them. the study of written matter recorded on hard or durable material. The term is derived from the classical Greek epigraphein (to write upon, incise) and epigraphe (inscription). Because such media were exclusive or predominant in many of mankind's earliest civilizations, epigraphy is a prime tool in recovering much of the firsthand record of antiquity. It is thus an essential adjunct of the study of ancient man; it secures and delivers the primary data on which historical and philological disciplines alike depend for their understanding of the recorded past. In a narrower sense, epigraphy is the study of such documents as remains of the written self-expression of early cultures and as communication media in their own right, attesting to the development of visible sign systems and the art of writing as such. Finally, in later periods including our own, where perishable writing media predominate, epigraphy affords insights into the styles and purposes of monumental or otherwise exceptional techniques of written recording. Additional reading J.B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (1969), gives translations of inscriptional material, especially from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Asia Minor. J. Friedrich, Entzifferung verschollener Schriften und Sprachen (1954; Eng. trans., Extinct Languages, 1957), deals especially with the decipherment of inscriptions, while his Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmler (1932), transliterates a variety of epichoric texts from Asia Minor. R.G. Kent, Old Persian, 2nd ed. rev. (1953), is a comprehensive work including grammar, texts, and lexicon. W. Hinz, Altiranische Funde und Forschungen (1969), includes a number of important recent inscriptional finds from ancient Iran. J. Bloch, Les Inscriptions d'Asoka (1950), gives texts and translations of all Asokan epigraphs; whereas R.B. Pandey, Historical and Literary Inscriptions (1962), provides a transliterated selection of later Indic epigraphy as well. L. Deroy, Initiation l'pigraphie mycnienne (1962), provides a comprehensive survey of the study of Mycenaean tablets. E.S. Roberts, An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, 2 vol. (18871905), remains the classic compendium of its kind; while more recent, shorter surveys of its subject are found in G. Klaffenbach, Griechische Epigraphik (1957); and A.G. Woodhead, The Study of Greek Inscriptions (1959). A more elaborate recent treatment is that of M. Guarducci, Epigrafia greca, 2 vol. (196769). The Cretan laws have been sumptuously edited and commented in R.F. Willetts, The Law Code of Gortyn, Kadmos, suppl. 1 (1967). The old standard works on Latin inscriptions, J.E. Sandys, Latin Epigraphy, 2nd ed. rev. (1927); and R.L.V. Cagnat, Cours d'pigraphie latine, 3rd ed. (1898), are updated only in such summary surveys as R. Bloch, L'pigraphie latine, 3rd ed. (1964). The elaborate edition of the principal Umbrian inscription by J.W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (1959), gives text, translation, grammar, extensive commentary, and facsimiles of the tables themselves. R.W.V. Elliott, Runes: An Introduction (1959), is especially thorough on the side of British runes; while W. Krause, Runen (1970), is a compact but comprehensive survey of the entire field of runology.