The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs
The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs

Author: John Bodel

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-08-19

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1108892884

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A common belief is that systems of writing are committed to transparency and precise records of sound. The target is the language behind such marks. Readers, not viewers, matter most, and the most effective graphs largely record sound, not meaning. But what if embellishments mattered deeply - if hidden writing, slow to produce, slow to read, played as enduring a role as more accessible graphs? What if meaningful marks did service alongside records of spoken language? This book, a compilation of essays by global authorities on these subjects, zeroes in on hidden writing and alternative systems of graphic notation. Essays by leading scholars explore forms of writing that, by their formal intricacy, deflect attention from language. The volume also examines graphs that target meaning directly, without passing through the filter of words and the medium of sound. The many examples here testify to human ingenuity and future possibilities for exploring enriched graphic communication.

From Single Sign to Pseudo-Script
From Single Sign to Pseudo-Script

Author: Ben Haring

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-01-03

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 9004357548

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Writing is not the only notation system used in literate societies. Some visual communication systems are very similar to writing, but work differently. Identity marks are typical examples of such systems, and this book presents a particularly well-documented marking system used in Pharaonic Egypt as an exemplary case. From Single Sign to Pseudo-Script is the first book to fully discuss the nature and development of an ancient marking system, its historical background, and the fascinating story of its decipherment. Chapters on similar systems in other cultures and on semiotic theory help to distinguish between unique and universal features. Written by Egyptologist Ben Haring, the book addresses scholars interested in marking systems, writing, literacy, and the semiotics of visual communication. "With this publication, the author exemplified how a close familiarity with a subject enables research in areas of Egyptian society that had not been touched until now and how the resulting insight is presented properly." - Eva-Maria Engel, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis 76.1-2 (2019) "This work should certainly become a guidebook to scholars wishing to publish ostraca of this sort, who have in the past shied away from the complex task due to the enigmatic nature of the materials. The time has arrived for this study of this hitherto neglected facet of Egyptian writing, to find its fitting place in the history of literacy and script in Ancient Egypt, as well as in the history of workmen’s signs in general." - Orly Goldwasser, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies (2019, 78/2) "The technical data and Egyptological scholarship of the book are deliberately made very accessible to be of assistance in the understanding of identity marks in other periods and cultures. This is a remarkable work of social history." - George J. Brooke, in: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.5 (2019)

Read Indussian
Read Indussian

Author: Senthil Kumar AS

Publisher: Amarabharathi Publications & Booksellers, Tiruvannamalai

Published: 2012-04-14

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 938073302X

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The most apt deciphering of Indus valley civilization script with the help of 43 bilingual-like inscriptions -from Dholavira to the bulls and chimera of Harappan seals. Old Tamil language is here proved beyond doubts to be the lingua franca of the Indus civilization people.

Aspects of Kinship in Ancient Iran
Aspects of Kinship in Ancient Iran

Author: D. T. Potts

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2024-07-26

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 0520417372

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A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Originally delivered as the Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lectures, Aspects of Kinship in Ancient Iran is an exploration of kinship in the archaeological and historical record of Iran’s most ancient civilizations. D.T. Potts brings together history, archaeology, and social anthropology to provide an overview of what we can know about the kith and kinship ties in Iran, from prehistory to Elamite, Achaemenid, and Sasanian times. In so doing, he sheds light on the rich body of evidence that exists for kin relations in Iran, a topic that has too often been ignored in the study of the ancient world.

Hieroglyphs, Pseudo-Scripts and Alphabets
Hieroglyphs, Pseudo-Scripts and Alphabets

Author: Ben Haring

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-10-31

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1009400789

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Introduces the workings and uses of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the various degrees of cultural knowledge of their makers and – most importantly – the influence hieroglyphs had on other scripts and notations in antiquity.

Inscriptions and the Epigraphic Habit
Inscriptions and the Epigraphic Habit

Author: Rebecca Ruth Benefiel

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-10-30

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9004683127

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This volume illustrates how the epigraphic habit is ubiquitous but variously expressed. Inscriptions become part of the fabric of Greek and Roman culture.

Tattooed Bodies
Tattooed Bodies

Author: James Martell

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-01-20

Total Pages: 365

ISBN-13: 3030865665

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The essays collected in Tattooed Bodies draw on a range of theoretical paradigms and empirical knowledge to investigate tattoos, tattooing, and our complex relations with marks on skin. Engaging with diverse disciplinary perspectives in art history, continental philosophy, media studies, psychoanalysis, critical theory, literary studies, biopolitics, and cultural anthropology, the volume reflects the sheer diversity of meanings attributed to tattoos throughout history and across cultures. Essays explore conceptualizations of tattoos and tattooing in Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, Lacan, Agamben, and Jean-Luc Nancy, while utilizing theoretical perspectives to interpret tattoos in literary works by Melville, Beckett, Kafka, Genet, and Jeff VanderMeer, among others. Tattooed Bodies prompts readers to explore a few significant questions: Are tattoos unique phenomena or an art medium in need of special theoretical exploration? If so, what conceptual paradigms and theories might best shape our understanding of tattoos and their complex ubiquity in world cultures and histories?

Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies
Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies

Author: Geoffrey Yeo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-04-21

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 042962008X

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Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies provides a concise and up-to-date survey of early record-making and record-keeping practices across the world. It investigates the ways in which human activities have been recorded in different settings using different methods and technologies. Based on an in-depth analysis of literature from a wide range of disciplines, including prehistory, archaeology, Assyriology, Egyptology, and Chinese and Mesoamerican studies, the book reflects the latest and most relevant historical scholarship. Drawing upon the author’s experience as a practitioner and scholar of records and archives and his extensive knowledge of archival theory and practice, the book embeds its account of the beginnings of recording practices in a conceptual framework largely derived from archival science. Unique both in its breadth of coverage and in its distinctive perspective on early record-making and record-keeping, the book provides the only updated and synoptic overview of early recording practices available worldwide. Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students engaged in the study of archival science, archival history, and the early history of human culture. The book will also appeal to practitioners of archives and records management interested in learning more about the origins of their profession.

Non-scribal Communication Media in the Bronze Age Aegean and Surrounding Areas
Non-scribal Communication Media in the Bronze Age Aegean and Surrounding Areas

Author: Anna Margherita Jasink

Publisher: Firenze University Press

Published: 2018-01-08

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 8864536361

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This volume is intended to be the first in a series that will focus on the origin of script and the boundaries of non-scribal communication media in proto-literate and literate societies of the ancient Aegean. Over the last 30 years, the domain of scribes and bureaucrats has become much better known. Our goal now is to reach below the élite and scribal levels to interface with non-scribal operations conducted by people of the ‘middling’ sort. Who made these marks and to what purpose? Did they serve private or (semi-) official roles in Bronze Age Aegean society? The comparative study of such practices in the contemporary East (Cyprus, Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt) can shed light on sub-elite activities in the Aegean and also provide evidence for cultural and economic exchange networks.