Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions. Volume 2: The Corpus

Silvia Ferrara

City: Oxford

Year: 2013

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Description: Hardback, 320 p., 250 in-text illustrations and 50 pages of colour plates, 24,6x18,9 cm

Abstract

This volume is the first comprehensive archaeological catalogue of all the extant inscriptions written in the un-deciphered syllabary of Late Bronze Age Cyprus (1500-1200 BC): the so-called Cypro-Minoan script. In conjunction with Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions Volume 1: Analysis, this volume focuses on the physical reality of the inscribed objects containing Cypro-Minoan and the archaeological contexts in which they were found. Offering a detailed, systematic, and rigorous examination of both the objects and their functions in the material record, it proposes a new way of examining the inscriptions. This comprehensive standpoint therefore considers not only the inscriptions themselves, but more importantly the contexts and functions of the inscribed objects, which are significant for the documentary evidence they bear and the part they play as physical entities manufactured, shaped, and used by past peoples for a defined purpose.

Organized in a catalogue format, each object is analysed, illustrated, and accompanied by a detailed commentary on the context of recovery and typological characteristics with full bibliographical references. While a standalone reference work, it aims to showcase the inscribed objects discussed in Volume 1: Analysis, fully illustrating them in a series of photographs, including 50 colour plates, and drawings.

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

List of Illustrations and Plates

Introduction: An Archaeological Corpus

1.1: Historical Background

1.2: Definition of the Corpus

1.3: Corpus Structure and Order of Entry

1.4: Additions (ADD ##218-##243)

1.5: Appendices

THE INSCRIPTIONS: ##001-##243

Appendices

List of Cypro-Minoan Objects and their Functions

Sign Variants

General Bibliography