W. Brokaert, A. Delattre, E. Dupraz, M. J. Estaran Tolosa (Éds), L’épigraphie sur céramique. L’instrumentum domesticum, ses genres textuels et ses fonctions dans les sociétés antiques (Hautes Études du monde gréco-romain, 60), Genève, Droz, 2021, pp. 163-180., 2021
The greek alphabetic writing starts on pottery. Property marks, gifts, votive offerings, dedicati... more The greek alphabetic writing starts on pottery. Property marks, gifts, votive offerings, dedications to gods reprehesent the earliest typologies of inscriptions. They are scratched or picted on a large variety of vases, and they provide the basic evidence for all studies on the earliest phases of greek literacy.
But why pottery? It is likely that other types of perishable surfaces and objects were also employed, such as wooden tablets or leather (deltoi and diphterai), but the use of ceramic artifacts, mainly domestic and personal, was surely pervasive (judging by the large amount of such findings and by the variety of contexts they emerge from); they appear, therefore, as the most important and used medium in the early Greek archaic world. This preponderance is linked, certainly, to diverse social Greek contexts as well as to specific communication needs, intentions and strategies.
This study will focus on these features, and on the most meaningful epigraphic documents related to them: property marks, gifts, votive and sacred dedications, metric inscriptions and abecedaria will constitute the main evidence. The aim of this investigation will be to ascertain who wrote and what they wrote and to investigate what social and cultural dynamics stimulated the use of ceramic artifacts in the writing process.
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Papers by Giovanni Boffa
the birth of the city and its double peculiar nature of “new foundation”
and “metropolis”. The role of Lefkandi and Amarinthos, the status of
polis and the concept of short-distance foundation will be the focus of
this paper.
But why pottery? It is likely that other types of perishable surfaces and objects were also employed, such as wooden tablets or leather (deltoi and diphterai), but the use of ceramic artifacts, mainly domestic and personal, was surely pervasive (judging by the large amount of such findings and by the variety of contexts they emerge from); they appear, therefore, as the most important and used medium in the early Greek archaic world. This preponderance is linked, certainly, to diverse social Greek contexts as well as to specific communication needs, intentions and strategies.
This study will focus on these features, and on the most meaningful epigraphic documents related to them: property marks, gifts, votive and sacred dedications, metric inscriptions and abecedaria will constitute the main evidence. The aim of this investigation will be to ascertain who wrote and what they wrote and to investigate what social and cultural dynamics stimulated the use of ceramic artifacts in the writing process.
the birth of the city and its double peculiar nature of “new foundation”
and “metropolis”. The role of Lefkandi and Amarinthos, the status of
polis and the concept of short-distance foundation will be the focus of
this paper.
But why pottery? It is likely that other types of perishable surfaces and objects were also employed, such as wooden tablets or leather (deltoi and diphterai), but the use of ceramic artifacts, mainly domestic and personal, was surely pervasive (judging by the large amount of such findings and by the variety of contexts they emerge from); they appear, therefore, as the most important and used medium in the early Greek archaic world. This preponderance is linked, certainly, to diverse social Greek contexts as well as to specific communication needs, intentions and strategies.
This study will focus on these features, and on the most meaningful epigraphic documents related to them: property marks, gifts, votive and sacred dedications, metric inscriptions and abecedaria will constitute the main evidence. The aim of this investigation will be to ascertain who wrote and what they wrote and to investigate what social and cultural dynamics stimulated the use of ceramic artifacts in the writing process.
Both are accompanied by other remarkable inscriptions and offer us food for thought about several historical and epigraphical issues: forms, modes and ways of the presence of writing in the Peucetian area; the value of such elements as indicators of a deep cultural relationship between Peucetia and other Italic and Greek cultural contexts, (Taranto above all); the role played by potters in teaching to write.
The document from Gravina, in particular, looks like a very special compendium of elements belonging to common and interesting epigraphical classes: artist's signature, dedication, abecedaries are here accompanied by the most rare mention of a teacher. The relationship among the three persons mentioned in the text, all of non-Greek origins, appear as a relevant issue of discussion.
But why pottery? It is likely that other types of perishable surfaces and objects were also employed, such as wooden tablets or leather (deltoi and diphterai), but the use of ceramic artifacts, mainly domestic and personal, was surely pervasive (judging by the large amount of such findings and by the variety of contexts they emerge from); they appear, therefore, as the most important and used medium in the early Greek archaic world. This preponderance is linked, certainly, to diverse social Greek contexts as well as to specific communication needs, intentions and strategies.
This study will focus on these features, and on the most meaningful epigraphic documents related to them: property marks, gifts, votive and sacred dedications, metric inscriptions and abecedaria will constitute the main evidence. The aim of this investigation will be to ascertain who wrote and what they wrote and to investigate what social and cultural dynamics stimulated the use of ceramic artifacts in the writing process.