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This volume offers a new and interdisciplinary treatment of syllabic writing in ancient Cyprus. A team of distinguished scholars tackles epigraphic, palaeographic, linguistic, archaeological, historical and terminological problems relating to the island's writing systems in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, from the appearance of writing around the fifteenth century down to the end of the first millennium BC. The result is not intended to be a single, unified view of the scripts and their context, but rather a varied collection that demonstrates a range of interpretations of the evidence and challenges some of the longstanding or traditional views of the population of ancient Cyprus and its epigraphic habits. This is the first comprehensive account of the 'Cypro-Minoan' and 'Cypriot syllabic' scripts to appear in a single volume and forms an invaluable resource for anyone studying Cypriot epigraphy or archaeology.
List of contents
Introduction: syllabic writing on Cyprus and its context Philippa M. Steele; 1. The development of Cypriot syllabaries, from Enkomi to Kafizin Jean-Pierre Olivier; 2. Non-Greek languages of ancient Cyprus and their scripts: Cypro-Minoan 1-3 Yves Duhoux; 3. Writing in Cypro-Minoan: one script, too many? Silvia Ferrara; 4. Late Cypriot writing in context Susan Sherratt; 5. From the Cypro-Minoan to the Cypro-Greek syllabaries: linguistic remarks on the script reform Markus Egetmeyer; 6. The Cypriot syllabary as a royal signature: the political context of the syllabic script in the Iron Age Maria Iacovou; 7. Rethinking some alphabetic and syllabic Cypriot inscriptions Massimo Perna.
About the author
Philippa M. Steele is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow based in the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge, and a Fellow of Magdalene College and Director of Studies in Classics at Wolfson College. In 2013–14, she gave the annual Evans-Pritchard Lectures at All Souls College, Oxford, on the theme of 'Society and Writing in Ancient Cyprus'. Her monograph A Linguistic History of Ancient Cyprus (Cambridge, 2013) is a publication of her doctoral research, which won the University of Cambridge's prestigious Hare Prize.
Summary
The first comprehensive account of syllabic writing in ancient Cyprus, tackling epigraphic, archaeological and historical problems relating to the island's writing systems in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, and challenging some longstanding or traditional views. Invaluable for scholars studying Cypriot epigraphy or archaeology.
