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Scholars working in a number of disciplines –
archaeologists, classicists, epigraphers, papyrologists, Assyriologists,
Egyptologists, Mayanists, philologists, and ancient historians of all
stripes – routinely engage with ancient textual sources that are either
material remains from the archaeological record or historical products
of other connections between the ancient world and our own.
Examining
the archaeology-text nexus from multiple perspectives, contributors to
this volume discuss current theoretical and practical problems that have
grown out of their work at the boundary of the division between
archaeology and the study of early inscriptions. In 12 representative
case-studies drawn from research in Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and
Mesoamerica, scholars use various lenses to critically examine the
interface between archaeology and the study of ancient texts, rethink
the fragmentation of their various specialized disciplines, and
illustrate the best in current approaches to contextual analysis.
The
collection of essays also highlights recent trends in the development
of documentation and dissemination technologies, engages with the
ethical and intellectual quandaries presented by ancient inscriptions
that lack archaeological context, and sets out to find profitable future
directions for interdisciplinary research.
Table of Contents
1. Morag M. Kersel and Matthew T. Rutz / Introduction
2. Matthew W. Stolper / Case in Point: The Persepolis Fortification Archive
3. Nicholas P. Carter / Space, Time, and Texts: A Landscape Approach to the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic Record
4. Scott Bucking / Now You See it, Now You Don’t: The Dynamics of Archaeological and Epigraphic Landscapes from Coptic Egypt
5. Timothy P. Harrison / Articulating Neo-Assyrian Imperialism at Tell Tayinat
6. Matthew T. Rutz / The Archaeology of Mesopotamian Extispicy: Modeling Divination in the Old Babylonian Period
7.
Adam Smith / The Ernest K. Smith Collection of Shang Divination
Inscriptions at Columbia University and the Evidence for Scribal
Training at Anyang
8. Eleanor Robson / Tracing Networks of Cuneiform Scholarship with Oracc, GKAB, and Google Earth
9.
Lisa Anderson and Heidi Wendt / Ancient Relationships, Modern
Intellectual Horizons: The Practical Challenges and Possibilities of
Encoding Greek and Latin Inscriptions
10. Christopher A. Rollston / Forging History: From Antiquity to the Modern Period
11. Neil J. Brodie and Morag M. Kersel / WikiLeaks, Texts, and Archaeology: The Case of the Schøyen Incantation Bowls
12. Patty Gerstenblith / Do Restrictions on Publication of Undocumented Texts Promote Legitimacy?
13. John F. Cherry / Publishing Undocumented Texts: Editorial Perspectives
