Details
Each contributor focuses on a different theoretical problem and/or set of scripts. Important questions include: How and why did writing emerge in Crete in the Middle Bronze Age? What is the relationship between writing and art? Why did different writing systems co-exist with each other? What changes were made when a new system was developed from an old one? Can our understanding of how different systems are related to each other help us to reconstruct the values of script signs? The contributors tackle such questions by employing a variety of methods, from epigraphic and palaeographic analysis to typological comparison and contextual study.
The result is a coherent volume that will not only enrich our understanding of the ancient Aegean writing systems in particular, but will also provide an important example for future studies of writing across the world.
Table of Contents
Reviews & Quotes
"...all [chapters] lead to conclusions that are important for our understanding of the development of writing in the Aegean […] a collection that provides much food for thought."
Oliver Dickinson
Journal of Greek Archaeology
"With its wide-ranging topics and methodologies, this volume makes an outstanding contribution to the current state of research. It is a pioneering undertaking encouraging further future collaborations. These studies have definitely paved the way for turning this ‘no man’s land’ that is the study of writing systems into a promising autonomous discipline in its own right, while being connected to neighbouring fields of research through interdisciplinary bridges"
Reviews Editor
Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie
(01/03/2018)
"All of the essays contain contributions of real interest and value […]"
Stephen Colvin
Journal of Hellenic Studies
(18/09/2020)