Materiality in Context: Two Perspectives on Epigraphy Beyond Words.

A seminar in the series “The Cutting Edge: Conversations in Epigraphy”

An inscribed monument drawn on an ancient manuscript, a terrible curse scratched on a lead tablet.

When looking at epigraphic documents such as these, we have to bear in mind that we are not just reading words displayed through different media. Epigraphy needs to tackle the ways in which meaning is constructed when word and object—redefining each other in the process—become  inextricably intertwined. This process brings life to artefacts whose reality-shaping power can not be properly traced out without giving due prominence to their epigraphic landscapes. Recent scholarly discourse has in fact been focusing more and more on the materiality of epigraphic documents and the context in which they originated. How much of this context is inevitably lost to time, and in what measure can it be reconstructed? What level of abstraction can we reach before the artefacts lose their intrinsic character?  In this seminar we will try to address these topics from two different angles, with the aid of targeted case studies. (1) Within a more historically oriented framework, we will explore, through manuscripts and archival documents, the opportunities to reconstruct the materiality of inscribed monuments and their lifecycle offered by the handwritten tradition of epigraphy. (2) A more philosophical and anthropological perspective, using curse tablets as a case study, will in contrast cast light on how verbal acts gain power and extend their influence over time once they acquire material presence, and in which ways they do so.

We will end with participant discussion of two example inscriptions, with a focus on their material and extra-textual contexts.

All welcome but booking required