Material Entanglements of Writing Practices in the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus

Abstract

The present paper explores theoretical aspects of the study of writing systems and practices. It approaches the mesh that constitutes writing practice through one type of agent: the writing instrument used to write clay documents in the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus. On the one hand, this investigation will use types of writing implements and their distribution to think through wider issues concerning the development of writing practices across the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus. On the other, it will attempt to establish the place of writing implements within a broader conceptual framework of the people, things and actions that constitute writing practices in this area and period.

An Archaeology of Body Traces: Finding Everyday Hands From Minoan Crete

“…The work of Pape et al . (2014), Steele (2020) and Judson (2023) has shown in a systematic way that different stages of making and drying tablets have direct affordances on the ease or difficulty of inscribing, but also on other indications of handling the artefacts. The author, who had also conducted such experiments in 2011 for teaching purposes (hitherto unpublished), was fascinated to see that several results of these experiments were very similar, but also that such experimental archaeology has finally gained traction in Aegean Bronze Age studies.…”

“…While these handling gestures could have occurred when the tablet was being moved (before/after inscription), the ones to the left and under syllabogram nwa likely reflect the bimanual moment of inscription: the left thumb of the scribe steadied the tablet there; the right hand inscribed the right downward stem of nwa away from the thumb and all the way to the edge of the tablet (probably with a rounded, tapering but sharp stylus, cf. Steele 2020), then it superimposed/crossed the left stem from top right to bottom left, but lifted the stylus away from the clay when it hit the thumb which was gripping the edge.…”

The Tablet-Makers of Pylos: An Experimental Investigation Into the Production of Linear B Tablets

“…Many Mycenologists will have made replica Linear B tablets at some point, with students or as a public engagement activity, 2 if not as part of experimental research. Examples of the latter include creating tablets to test the use of the styli found at Tiryns (Godart 1988, 248–50; 1994; on styli, see also Steele 2020); experiments carried out as part of Sjöquist and Åström's (1991, 19–25) investigations into tablet production; demonstrations that dry tablets could be re-wetted in order to edit their texts (Pape 2002; Pape et al 2014) and that they could survive being transported long distances (Hallager 2017); and an investigation of the means of smoothing tablet surfaces and edges (Greco and Flouda 2017, 149–51). The different methods used for creating tablets – and what reasons a tablet-maker might have to choose one over another – have, however, not previously been the subject of systematic experimental investigation.…”

“…A wooden replica of a Mycenaean stylus made for me by Philip Boyes was later used to write the replica tablets shown in my video at . For a discussion of the impact on writing of using different shapes of styli, see Steele 2020.…”