Too Much Writing, Too Few Scribes: Extra-Scribal Writing in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean (1650-1100 BCE)

Edited by Cassandra M. Donnelly

Book cover: Too Much Writing, Too Few Scribes: Extra-Scribal Writing in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean (1650-1100 BCE)

Extent: 216 pages

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing

Subjects: European Prehistory, World Archaeology

Series: Archaeopress Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(May 2025)

ISBN: 9781803279954

8.07 x 11.42 inches

Price: $64.00

In stock

‘Extra-scribal’ writing encompasses a myriad of writing practices, from potmarking to graffiti to text erasure, often overlooked by scholars. This volume examines Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean and Aegean writing on atypical media, highlighting interdisciplinary insights from various fields and theoretical models.


‘Extra-scribal’ writing encompasses a myriad of writing practices, from potmarking to graffiti to text erasure, often deemed unworthy of study by previous generations of scholars. The producers of ‘extra-scribal’ texts often operated in the margins of the palatial and administrative centers of their day. They wrote on and marked atypical writing media: not clay tablets or papyrus but ostraca, stone, and vessels. Focusing on the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean and Aegean, regions rich in scripts and languages, this volume highlights similarities and differences in writing and marking practices across time and place. Contributors come from the fields of Egyptology, Hittitology, Ancient Near Eastern archaeology, Aegean prehistory, Cypriot archaeology, and Information Sciences, applying a range of theoretical models to the subject matter. The volume reflects an interdisciplinary approach to a set of topics only now coming to the fore in scholarly literature.

List of Figures Too much writing, too few scribes: Extra-scribal writing in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean (1650-1100 BCE) - Cassandra M. Donnelly Section I: Craft Literacy and Non-Scribal Writing Potmarks in Context: Some Preliminary Observations on Marked Vessels from Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus - Teresa Burge A Desert Writing Idiom: North Kharga's Ancient Carvers Modify and Appropriate Standard Egyptian Scribal Practices - Nikolaos Lazaridis Non-Administrative Linear A Writing Practices: The Case of Stone Vessels (c.1800-1450 BC) - Mnemosyne Rice Material Matters: The Influence of Materiality on the Structure and Palaeography of the Linear A script of Bronze Age Crete - Ester Salgarella Section II: Meaning Making Unique and Universal: The Workmen's Identity Marks from Deir el-Medina in Comparative Perspective - K. V. J. van der Moezel This Means That: Processes of Fixing and Conveying Meaning with Seals - Sarah Finlayson Tracing Graphic Signs of the Byblos Script in the Bronze Age Potmarking Systems in Lebanon - Metoda Persin Section III: Materiality Eternal Works: Stone as a Book Medium in Pharaonic Egypt - Chana Algarvio Materials of Writing: Ostraca Use at Tell Edfu - Kathryn Bandy Un-Writing Text: Intentional Erasing and Damaging of Script in Ancient Egypt - Elena L. Hertel Hittite and Neo-Hittite Writing Styli with Pointed Tips: Catalog, Technology, Significance - Michele Cammarosano,

Too much writing, too few scribes: Extra-scribal writing in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean (1650-1100 BCE) Cassandra M. Donnelly

 

Section I: Craft Literacy and Non-Scribal Writing

Potmarks in Context: Some Preliminary Observations on Marked Vessels from Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus Teresa Bürge

A Desert Writing Idiom: North Kharga’s Ancient Carvers Modify and Appropriate Standard Egyptian Scribal Practices Nikolaos Lazaridis

Non-Administrative Linear A Writing Practices: The Case of Stone Vessels (c.1800-1450 BC) – Mnemosyne Rice

Material Matters: The Influence of Materiality on the Structure and Palaeography of the Linear A script of Bronze Age Crete Ester Salgarella

 

Section II: Meaning Making

Unique and Universal: The Workmen’s Identity Marks from Deir el-Medina in Comparative Perspective K. V. J. van der Moezel

This Means That: Processes of Fixing and Conveying Meaning with Seals – Sarah Finlayson

Tracing Graphic Signs of the Byblos Script in the Bronze Age Potmarking Systems in Lebanon – Metoda Peršin

 

Section III: Materiality

Eternal Works: Stone as a Book Medium in Pharaonic Egypt – Chana Algarvio

Materials of Writing: Ostraca Use at Tell Edfu Kathryn Bandy

Un-Writing Text: Intentional Erasing and Damaging of Script in Ancient Egypt Elena L. Hertel

Hittite and Neo-Hittite Writing Styli with Pointed Tips: Catalog, Technology, Significance – Michele Cammarosano

  • Edited by Cassandra M. Donnelly