The literal meaning of the word "epigraphy" is "referring to inscriptions". It is derived from the Greek "epigraphe" - "inscription". There are several areas of its application. For example, modern epigraphy is a collection of inscriptions that are in logical connection with the subject environment. It can be signs, signs on doors, pointers, labels. Modern epigraphy is not the name of a scientific discipline, but an object of study in linguistics. We will be interested in a completely different - historical.
What epigraphy studies
There are many categories of written historical sources. When studying them, one cannot do without auxiliary historical disciplines, which provide scientists with the entire arsenal of methods of the most diverse sciences. There are many such items, and their number increases with the complexity of the classification of sources.
One of these disciplines is epigraphy. This is a branch of historical science that studies inscriptions on monuments of the past made of solid material. Stone, bone, metal, wood, clay products are of interest to epigraphy in thatif there are scratched, embossed or chased inscriptions on them. The fact is that the mechanical impact on the material (engraving, carving the text on a wooden board) gives the monument important distinctive features. They largely depend on the nature of the material, surface treatment and writing instrument. For example, the wedge-shaped appearance of Mesopotamian written characters is due to the way they were applied: with a pointed reed or wooden stick, the signs were squeezed into soft clay.
Cuneiform originated from pictographic writing, as the texts became more complex, the “volume of work” of scribes increased and the speed of writing increased, pictograms were simplified, and as a result, writing acquired its characteristic look.
Epigraphist, using the apparatus of linguistics, cultural studies, art history, attributes writing - this is the main thing - and performs translation (if possible). The text, if it can be read, must be comprehended precisely within the framework of the established system of writing and language of a certain era. For example, one should not try to read the inscription of the 5th century BC. e. in the language of the 10th century AD. e. Thus, the issues lie in the area of intersection of many disciplines and are resolved within the limits of applicability of the methods used by this science.
What can epigraphy tell about? Interesting facts related to this discipline can be collected in a multitude. Let's focus on just a few, and we will see that epigraphy is not only important, but also very entertaining.
How ancient scribes helped scientists
In the 19th centurywhen studying various types of cuneiform, decipherers encountered great difficulties: the same sign could be an ideogram, an unreadable determinant or a syllabic sign, and it could also be pronounced differently. The Sumerians “invented” the cuneiform script, but it was used by many peoples who inhabited Mesopotamia at different times. The Akkadians (Babylonians), having adopted the Sumerian sign system, endowed each syllable sign with a new sound. How to read the inscriptions correctly?
The famous library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal helped in matters of epigraphy. In it, among a huge number of "clay books", a real dictionary was found: ancient Sumerian and Babylonian-Assyrian sound values were compared to ideogram signs. It was probably a manual for novice scribes who experienced the same difficulties as epigraphists after more than two and a half thousand years …
Maps on clay tablets
The inhabitants of Mesopotamia made not only dictionaries, but also maps. The late Babylonian map of the world of the VIII-VII centuries BC is widely known. e., however, it was rather an illustration of a myth and had no practical significance: it is difficult to imagine that the Babylonians by that time did not know about the existence of, for example, Egypt. The purpose of the card remains unclear.
There are much more ancient (mid-2nd millennium BC) maps, which do not claim, however, to be global, but are clearly drawn up for practical purposes.
This is a map of royalfields in the area of the city of Nippur, as well as a plan of the city itself, which shows temples, gardens, canals and a city wall with several gates. All objects are marked with short cuneiform inscriptions.
Scratched walls are a valuable historical source
Epigraphics are ancient and medieval graffiti. The famous Roman inscriptions are often compared with social networks for a reason - they contain everything: from the always relevant “Mark loves Spendusa” and “Virgula - Tertia: you are a scoundrel” to the philosophical and melancholy “One day you die and become just nothing.” The walls of houses and public buildings were both bulletin boards and political leaflets. The literacy of those who wrote was sometimes very “limping”, but thanks to these inscriptions, researchers have at their disposal material related to the colloquial, folk language of a distant era. It was this "Vulgar Latin" that subsequently formed the basis of modern Romance languages.
In the Middle Ages, people also liked to scribble something on the walls. There are known inscriptions in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Constantinople, made in runes - they were probably left by Varangian mercenaries from the guards of the Byzantine emperor.
Rich epigraphic material is provided by graffiti on the walls of ancient Russian churches. They contain not only manifestations of self-expression (“Ivan wrote”) or short prayers, but also texts containing current military or political information at the time of writing. These are messages about strife and reconciliation of princes, serious events (for example, the murder of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky). Such inscriptionswere made "in hot pursuit", and the information gleaned from them helps to supplement and clarify the data of chronicle sources, so they are extremely important.
Letters on birch bark
To date, the number of birch bark letters exceeds a thousand and continues to grow. They were first discovered in Novgorod, later found in other ancient Russian cities. These monuments testify to the widespread literacy among the urban population. Among them there are economic and business messages, messages about court cases, debt lists. Therefore, letters convey to historians the most valuable information about civil life, about socio-economic relations in medieval Russian society. For example, a message about the purchase of lands and peasants: “Bow from Sinophon to my brother Ofonos. Let it be known to you that I bought before Maxim the Yeshersky district and Zamolmosovie and peasants for myself in Simovl and on Khvoyna. And Maxim and Ivan Shirokiy were there.”
Among the letters there are love notes, school exercises, prayers and conspiracies. There are examples of family correspondence: “Instruction to Semyon from his wife. You would calm down [everyone] simply and wait for me. And I hit you with my forehead.”
A certain Boris writes to Nastasya: “As soon as this letter arrives, send me a man on a stallion, because I have a lot to do here. Yes, the shirt came - I forgot the shirt. And immediately the world of the distant past comes to life, ceases to be just a dry page of a history textbook. And here is a completely intriguing fragment: “with a man, a letter came secretly.” The birch bark is torn off, and no one has this secret anymorelearns…
The oldest letters found date back to the 11th century, the latest - to the 15th century, when birch bark as a writing material began to be replaced by paper, which is much worse preserved. Birch bark documents are a window into the Russian Middle Ages, allowing us to see in history not only princes, governors and church hierarchs, but also ordinary people, and thereby make our knowledge of the past more complete.
Meaning of epigraphy
In many cases, epigraphy is the only source of our knowledge about the written heritage of any people, such as the Etruscans, ancient Germans, Celts. And for other ancient civilizations, epigraphic sources make up the bulk of written monuments.
When studying antiquity and the Middle Ages, the data obtained with the help of epigraphy are also indispensable - they can tell about aspects of life that cannot be learned from annals and annals. Equally important are official epigraphic monuments - dedicatory and religious inscriptions, epitaphs, texts of international treaties and legal documents.
We have considered only a few examples from that huge array of monuments that studies epigraphy. Not much, but quite enough to understand how great is the role of this auxiliary discipline in historical science.
