Exploring Writing Systems and Practices in Bronze Age Aegean

Writing does not begin and end with the encoding of an idea into a group of symbols. It is practiced by people who have learnt its principles and acquired the tools and skills for doing it, in a particular context that affects what they do and how they do it. The people, the inscribed objects and the implements and materials are all agents that affect and are affected by each act of writing – as can be observed by studying not only the material features and contextual associations of surviving inscriptions, but also the development of the writing systems and their sets of features.

With a focus on the syllabic systems of Bronze Age Greece, this book attempts to bring together different perspectives to create an innovative interdisciplinary outlook on what is involved in writing: from structuralist views of writing as systems of signs with their linguistic values, to archaeological and anthropological approaches to writing as a socially grounded practice.