'Script as Material Culture' Workgroup (Chair: Kathryn E. Piquette)
Thursday 31st July
12:00–2:00pm Sackler Seminar Room
Often included within the category of 'material culture' are pots, stelae, figurines, and other objects, but ‘writing’ and other forms of 'visual culture' are typically treated apart from past material worlds and human experience. The aim of this workshop is to examine inscriptional evidence from an explicitly materials perspective. Workshop contributions, in the form of pre-circulated papers, will deal with a range of script-related topics, but it is intended that discussion of these will focus on the impact of material and archaeological contexts – both in terms of analytical methods and how we interpret past function and meaning.
A particular concern that we hope to address is the relationship between philology and archaeology in the study of early scripts in the Nile Valley. Similarly, we hope to re-evaluate the common perception that inscriptions are important primarily for the evidence they provide about the past by also considering the subject matter in terms its efficacy and meaning as material culture in relation to past people’s lives (and afterlives) in their present.
In establishing what material concerns are most relevant to our respective research topics, we seek to investigate the interrelation of symbolic and material meanings. Thus we need to interrogate the following, and see how these and other material factors might impinge upon the content meaning of the inscriptional evidence:
- Material concerns: materials of manufacture; techniques; dimensions; scale; colour, texture; portability; etc.
- Material practice concerns: making / re-making / maintenance; use / re-use; audiencing / visibility / invisibility; deposition / discard.
Related questions include:
- How can our recording methods in the field, in publication and by other methods, better convey the scriptorial and material aspects of the evidence?
- How can we better relate our terminology such as ‘writing’, ‘inscription’, ‘script’, ‘document’, ‘text’, ‘proto-writing’, ‘true writing’, etc., and the other types of graphical evidence we often distinguish (e.g., geometric imagery, figural depictions, art, representation, potmarks) to past categories, concepts and meanings?
- Can (and should) we avoid anachronistic or hind-sighted interpretive strategies? For example, where there is morphological similarity across time and space, on what basis can we justify inferring similarity in meaning? How can a materials-centred approach aid a more contexual understanding of script?
Eight pre-papers dealing with written and other graphical evidence will be discussed during the workshop, available here and on the workshop's Google Group webpage (after 16 July 2008). Each contributor will present a 5 minute synopsis of his/her paper followed by 10 minutes of discussion. No spoken papers will be offered.
All conference delegates with an interest in early scripts of the Nile Valley are warmly invited to attend; however, space is limited. Please note that attendees are expected to read the pre-circulated workshop papers beforehand and general participants will need to bring their own lunch!
- The following abstracts have been accepted onto the programme for discussion during the workshop:
Contributors and Pre-Paper Abstracts
- Pre-papers for discussion during the workshop can be downloaded here:
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Presenter(s) Affiliation(s) Title Alain Anselin Universite des Antilles-Guyane, Martinique The phonetic intention. Ideograms and phonograms in potmarks of Dynasties 0, I and II John Coleman Darnell Yale University, USA Rock inscriptions and the origin of Egyptian writing Rita Di Maria Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy Clay sealings: tools of communication systems among different cultures in the 4th millennium BC? Alazne Legarreta Hernández Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain The evolution of shm-i3h during Dynasties I-III Elise V. MacArthur Oriental Institute, The University of Chicago In search of the sdm=f: the conception and development of hieroglyphic writing through the reign of Aha Kathryn Piquette Institute of Archaeology, University College, London A contextual archaeology of early script and image Maira Torcia Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy Clay sealings from Giza: the group with the figurative seal impressions - All registered conference delegates with an interest in early scripts of the Nile Valley are warmly invited to attend the workshop, and should sign-up at registration to reserve a place.*
Pre-Papers
Attendance
*Please note: Places are limited to approximately 30 persons.
I look forward to many profitable discussions at the meeting in London!
- With kind regards,
- Kathryn E. Piquette
- UCL Institute of Archaeology
- 31-34 Gordon Square
- London, WC1H 0PY
- United Kingdom
- E-mail: k.piquette@ucl.ac.uk
