Overview

This volume offers the first comprehensive examination of an ancient writing system from Cyprus and Syria known as Cypro-Minoan. After Linear B was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952, other un-deciphered scripts of the second millennium BC from the Aegean world (Linear A) and the Eastern Mediterranean (Cypro-Minoan) became the focus of those trying to crack this ancient and historical code. Despite several attempts for both syllabaries, this prospect has remained unrealized. This is especially true for Cypro-Minoan, the script of Late Bronze Age Cyprus found also at Ugarit in Syria, which, counting no more than 250 inscriptions, remains not only poorly documented, but also insufficiently explored in previous scholarship.Today progress in the study of this enigmatic script demands that we direct our attention to gaining new insight through a contextual analysis of Cypro-Minoan by tracing its life in the archaeological record and investigating its purpose and significance in the Cypriot and Syrian settlements that created and used it. With a new methodology concentrating on a ground-breaking contextual approach, Ferrara presents the first large-scale study of Cypro-Minoan with an analysis of all the inscriptions through a multidisciplinary perspective that embraces aspects of archaeology, epigraphy, and palaeography.

Full Product Details

Author:   Silvia Ferrara (Montalcini Research Fellow, University of La Sapienza, Rome.)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 19.60cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 25.30cm
Weight:   0.936kg
ISBN:  

9780199607570

ISBN 10:   0199607575
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   19 January 2012
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Introduction PART I: Function, Object and Content 1: Literacy in Late Bronze Age Cyprus 1.2: The History of Scholarship 1.3: Broadening the Picture: A Comprehensive Analysis 1.4: Geographical Distribution 1.5: Political Geography 1.6: Writing as Part of the Material Record 1.7: The Functions of the Inscribed Objects 1.8: Script as Ideological Symbol 1.9: Cypro-Minoan as ex novo Creation 2: The Archaeological Setting: Writing in the LCI-LCIII Periods 2.1: Framing the Script in Time and Place 2.2: Distribution: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives 2.3: The MCIII-LCI Period 2.4: The Beginning of the LCII Period 2.5: The LCIIC Period 2.6: The Script in the LCIIC Period 2.7: The LCIIC-LCIIIA Transition 3: Writing in LCIIIA: The Cypro-Minoan Floruit 3.1: The Clay Boules 3.2: The Geographical and Typological Diffusion of Writing in LCIIIA 3.3: The Cypro-Minoan Script at Ugarit 3.4: A Multi-Purpose Script PART II: Inscription and Signary 4: The Epigraphic Presentation of the Inscriptions 4.1: Macro-Level Analysis: Problems of Classification 4.2: Typologies of Objects: Medium Variety 4.3: Techniques of Epigraphic Writing 4.4: Styles on Clay: Intra-Medium Variety 4.5: Manufacturing and Inscribing Tablets 4.6: Epigraphic and Sematographic Instability 4.7: Macro-Level Analysis: Cypriot Scribal Traditions 5: The Palaeography of the Cypro-Minoan Script 5.1: The Signary 5.2: The Size of the Sign Repertoire 5.3: The Analysis of Sign Variations 5.4: A Critique of Linguistic Analyses 5.5: Cypro-Minoan as One Script 6: Cypro-Minoan and its Context 6.1: Contextualizing the History of Cypro-Minoan. 6.2: Contextualizing the Archaeology of Cypro-Minoan 6.3: Problems of Palaeography 6.4: Problems of Palaeographical Classification: The Role of Epigraphy 6.5: The Future of Cypro-Minoan References Appendices 1-7

Reviews

make a substantial, much-needed contribution to the field of Cypriot epigraphy. Thanks to Silvia Ferrara, we can now see a large number of Cypro-Minoan inscriptions in context and understand their media in a more comprehensive manner. Moreover, the author vindicates a more unitary way of looking at the script, which might prove fruitful in future investigations ... Ultimately, all scholars working on the script, even those who are concerned mainly with deciphermentaimed work, have reason to praise the publication of Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions. Miguel Valerio, Bibliotheca Orientalis

make a substantial, much-needed contribution to the field of Cypriot epigraphy. Thanks to Silvia Ferrara, we can now see a large number of Cypro-Minoan inscriptions in context and understand their media in a more comprehensive manner. Moreover, the author vindicates a more unitary way of looking at the script, which might prove fruitful in future investigations ... Ultimately, all scholars working on the script, even those who are concerned mainly with deciphermentaimed work, have reason to praise the publication of Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions. * Miguel Valerio, Bibliotheca Orientalis *

Author Information

Silvia Ferrara is Montalcini Research Fellow at the University of La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.

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