New Approaches to the Materiality of Text in the Ancient Mediterranean: From Monuments and Buildings to Small Portable Objects

New Approaches to the Materiality of Text in the Ancient MediterraneanFrom Monuments and Buildings to Small Portable ObjectsErica Angliker, Ilaria Bultrighini (eds)SUMMARYIn recent years, the study of epigraphy and ancient writings has undergone a ?material turn?, as scholars have increasingly looked beyond just the contents of written sources to also focus on their broader material and visual contexts as a way of exploring the layers of different meanings that can attach to written evidence. Taking this interdisciplinary approach as its starting point, this volume draws together contributions from specialists in different fields in order to analyze text-bearing objects and monuments from across the ancient Mediterranean world.From texts inscribed on large stone monuments and buildings, clay, or metal tablets, to writings on papyrus and parchment rolls, jewellery, vases, coins, and textiles, writing on different materials had manifold possibilities. The case studies gathered here examine novel approaches to the creation and display of inscribed objects, as well as to the ways in which such items were approached and perceived by people during a chronological period ranging from the Late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. In doing so, the volume sheds new light not only on the interplay between ancient texts, text-bearers, and viewers within their wider spatial and physical contexts, but also on the possibilities opened by exploring the material aspects of writing through interdisciplinary approaches.TABLE OF CONTENTSList of IllustrationsList of Abbreviations1. Introduction. The Material Turn in the Study of Ancient TextsErica Angliker and Ilaria BultrighiniI. Texts on Portable Objects Tablets, Vases, Ostraca, and the Inscribing Hand2. A Comparative Approach to Methods of Inscribing Clay Tablets. Interaction and Innovation in Cyprus and UgaritPhilippa M. Steele and Philip J. Boyes3. The Brygos Painter?s Miswritten Signature on the Lancastre pelikeGilberto Da Silva Francisco4. A Lesson in a Desert Quarry. A Material Approach to a School OstraconJulia LougovayaII. Texts on Portable Objects Coins, Rolls, Codices, and the Authoritativeness of Texts5. Inspecto nummo The Materiality of Coin Imagery and Inscriptions in the Roman WorldDario Calomino6. What is a Book? The Ideology of Materiality in Ancient Greek and Roman Writing TechnologyNicola ReggianiIII. Texts on Monuments and Buildings Spaces and Contexts of Ancient Inscriptions7. Women in Trouble, and the Habit of Objectifying a Text in the So-Called Confession InscriptionsIrene Salvo8. Epigraphy and the Power of Precedence in Asia MinorNaomi Carless UnwinIV. Texts that Move Through Media Body and Text9. Inscribed Materialities. Greek Curse TabletsJessica Lamont10. Formulating Faith on Objects and Buildings. The ?Light, Life? Formula in Late AntiquitySean V. Leatherbury11. ?And the Word Was Made flesh?. Greek and Aramaic Inscriptions as Substitutes for the Physical Presence of Benefactors in Eastern Christian SanctuariesPaweł NowakowskiV. Texts that Move through Media Greek Literary and Inscriptional Epigram12. Elegy, Epigram, and the Complementarity of Text and MonumentJoseph W. Day13. From Courtesans, to Goddesses. The Materialization of Ritual Practice in Nossis?s Votive EpigramsSherry (Chiayi) Lee14. Strategies of Ocular and Imaginary Deixis in Greek EpigramsFederica Scicolone15. AfterwordMichael SquireIndex