Images Hidden in Script. The Invention of Writing in Ancient Iran (original) (raw)
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A NCIENT MESOPOTAMIA DID NOT PLAY WITH ITS IDEOGRAPHIC SIGNS AND syllables. This does not mean that there was never wordplay. However, unlike the iconicized scripts of Islam, the historiared and embellished initials of the Western medieval world, or the animated hieroglyphs of pharaonic Egypt given agency by the addition of arms and legs, once Mesopotamian signs were stabilized into abstracted and legible forms, they retained their boundaries and their shapes within the scribal canon. With the possible exception of phonetic rebuses in the form of recognizable images early in the first millennium BeE,! distinctions between text signs and image figu res were carefully maintained. And yet, there are things to be said about the relationship between verbal and visual representation throughout the three millennia of the Mesopotamian sequence-particularly for a volume exploring cultural and historical permutations on the relationship between textual signs and imagery. It is my intention here to focus upon a particular subset of inscriptions in Sumerian and Akkadian, the languages of ancient Mesopotamia: those intended to be deployed and viewed in public. As a class, the works bearing inscriptions range in size from small cylinder seals, held in the hand and impressed upon clay tablets, bullae, and door and jar sealings, to large-scale, independent monuments and architecture. At both extremes, the inscribed works function "out there," in a domain where the carrier of the inscription has a material presence beyond the private exchange of information, as would have been the case in a letter from a father to a son scribed on a clay tablet, in which handwriting, that is, scri pr-wr iting, could be individual and distinctive. Because most of the examples I shall discuss are largely carved on stone rather than impressed into clay and were intended to be viewed by a public unfamiliar with the idiosyncrasies of personal-ized writing, the signs on monuments tend to be particularly well articulated and regular. As such, the signs both connote and contribute to legibility. They convey a formality that is seen to be part of the visual effect of the inscription. I shall refer to this group of texts on public works as executed in a "lapidary style" not unlike the regularized scripts employed on Roman triumphal arches and temples, or funerary markers from the classical world to the present. I would characterize such works, often
Ancient Egyptian Image-Writing: Between the Unspoken and Visual Poetics
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt , 2019
I would like to give my full gratitude to Stephen Quirke (UCL) who offered a close reading of this paper and provided many valuable suggestions for future research in comparison with Arabic. I am also grateful to several colleagues who offered their constructive criticism on earlier drafts of this article, including Steven Gregory (University of Birmingham), Ramzi Baalbaki (American University of Beirut), John Baines (University of Oxford), Federico Contardi (Université Paul-Valéry), Rune Nyord (Emory University), Filip Taterka (Polish Academy of Sciences), Claus Jurman (University of Birmingham) Shih-Wei HSU (Nankai University), Juan Castillos (Instituto Uruguayo de Egiptología), Richard Bussmann (University of Cologne), Elizabeth Thornton (UCLA), and Fayza Haikal (AUC). I thank the two peer reviewers of JARCE for their careful reading and suggestions. This article is dedicated to May Trad of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for her beautiful friendship, which I dearly miss. May her soul rest in peace. This work has received support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under ERC-2017-STG Grant Agreement No 759346: “Global Literary Theory: Caucasus Literatures Compared.” This article highlights the significance of considering the visual mediums of the ancient Egyptian (henceforth AE) writing system, in reading and translating AE literary texts. Despite their importance for understanding the internal mechanism of AE literary expressions, modern scholarship has not assimilated these visual mediums into its exploration. A possible theoretical framework for AE morphology structure may identify two input systems, one visual for visually presented materials that are more related to visual comprehension, and the other phonological for material presented using the auditory modality. The studied examples confirm that the AE writers had the opportunity to invite their receivers to take part in two experiential tasks (visual and phonological) to provoke two different behaviors, to get the right meaning intended by the resourceful writer. Rashwan, Hany. “Ancient Egyptian Image-Writing: Between the Unspoken and Visual Poetics”, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, volume 55, (2019): 137-160. https://doi.org/10.5913/jarce.55.2019.a009
Word & Image, 2021
This article presents a cross-cultural, diachronic, and comparative analysis of the representational aspects of picturewriting through the use of hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt and their revival in early Renaissance Europe. The two phenomena will be discussed with a focus on the functionality of the sign within the non-textual sphere, highlighting such similarities as the glottographic nature of the word-signs and the subsequent unified visuality of text and image. It is suggested that the similarities are the by-product of picture-writing: when words are expressed with pictograms rather than with letters, the following step is to benefit from their dual function, as both text and image. The current use of pictograms in digital media-namely the emoji-is a process that already exhibits similar traits.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bai
In this paper I suggest that the evolution of the earliest form of Minoan writing coincides with the transformation of the Minoan seal repertoire towards iconicity. Although the initial stages of the development of the "Archanes Script"(a sequence of five signs which may have conveyed phonetic values) are elusive, it is tempting to see its emergence on seals with an emblematic function as meaningful. I have argued that the constituent signs of this 'formula' possibly evolved out of a gradual transformation from a representational to a symbolic function, as exemplified by specific seal-groups of the Late Prepalatial period (late 3rd millennium B.C.). The contention that emblematic devices, such as seals, may have been one of the sources of inspiration for symbolic visual imagery is reinforced by cross-cultural analogies relating to the earliest stages of Near Eastern scripts (Proto-cuneiform, Proto-Elamite). At the same time, the combination of signs with a pictorial character (semasiographic signs?) and pure script signs (the first glottographic signs) on a few seals of the "Archanes Script Group" may reflect a successful emulation of the earliest imported Egyptian scarabs.
The paper titled "Cretan Hieroglyphic Writing as a System of Visual Encoding: Iconicity and Graphic Communication" explores the nature of Cretan Hieroglyphic, a logo-syllabic script used in ancient Crete, highlighting its role as a system of visual communication. The author examines how writing systems, in general, are based on visual codes that represent both phonetic and semantic content, distinguishing between glottographic (sound-based) and semasiographic (meaning-based) systems. Overall, the discussion explores the conceptual mechanism for the transition from semasiographic to phonographic script in the case of the Cretan Hieroglyphic. It also seeks to reframe how Cretan Hieroglyphic is understood, considering its iconic qualities and the socio-cultural factors that shaped its development as a unique writing system. Key points include: 1. Cognitive Framework: The paper discusses the neuronal recycling hypothesis by Stanislas Dehaene (2009), suggesting that our brains have evolved to recognize basic visual shapes, which underlie the formation of writing systems. This cognitive perspective posits that early writing signs were likely derived from shapes found in the environment, making them easier for humans to learn and understand. 2. Iconicity and Structure: Cretan Hieroglyphic combines phonetic (syllabograms) and semantic (logograms) elements. The author emphasizes the script's high level of iconicity, where signs visually represent real-world objects, complicating the distinction between their decorative and semantic functions. 3. Development and Context: The author argues that the abstraction of three-dimensional ‘emblems’, which were deep-rooted in social relationships and ideology was probably the conceptual mechanism for the transition from semasiographic to phonographic script and the gradual enrichment of the Cretan Hieroglyphic signary. Thus, the script is analyzed in the context of its gradual development within specific social settings, reflecting the concept of "communities of practice." The paper suggests that social processes influenced the evolution of writing systems, leading to variations based on structural principles. 4. Comparative Analysis: While not claiming direct influence from Egyptian hieroglyphs, the paper further suggests that similarities may exist in the cognitive processes leading to the development of both scripts. It aims to understand how Cretan Hieroglyphic conveyed meaning through its dual functions in administrative and non-administrative contexts. 5. Graphic Composition: This part addresses how the arrangement and directionality of signs contribute to visual perception and understanding of the writing system. This aspect is crucial for interpreting inscriptions in their specific "graphic space."
Archéo-Nil, 2016
In the Near East, the most ancient writing systems currently known in the world appeared at the end of the 4th millennium BC: the proto-cuneiform writing in Southern Mesopotamia and the proto-elamite writing on the Iranian Plateau. Both used for administrative and accounting purposes, these writing systems displayed important parallels, such as the numerical systems and the numerical value signs, and dissimilarities since most of their signs differed from each other. Because of the apparent break in the scribal tradition on the Iranian Plateau around 2800 BC, the proto-elamite writing did not give birth to any offspring which could have helped us in its decipherment, contrary to the proto-cuneiform writing and its heir, the cuneiform writing. For this reason, although it is known for more than one century thanks to the French excavations in Susa, the protoelamite writing remains still largely undeciphered and only the shared elements with the proto-cuneiform writing (such as the numerical systems) are finally well understood. In the mind of the non-specialists, the Near East is usually reduced to (Southern) Mesopotamia. In order to render all the complexity of the historical context which witnessed the invention of writing in the Near East, this paper presents state of the art research on the Iranian Plateau and the important scientific corpus of the proto-elamite tablets.
“Write to Dominate Reality: Graphic Alteration of Anthropomorphic Signs in the Pyramid Texts”
JOURNAL OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN INTERCONNECTIONS, 2019
The communicative process implies objects, sounds, images and words which can convey ideas and cultural ways of interpreting and representing a society; therefore, many linguistic anthropologists—especially Searle, but also Bauman and Briggs underline how speech and textual acts are regulated by defined cultural schemes, and how their study cannot exclude analysis of the original context as well as of the specific conventions ruling it. This paper is intended to provide an interpretation of some particular graphic solutions concerning the human determinative occurring in the Pyramid Texts of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, and to analyze the possible reasons and underlying anthropological apparatus that led to these choices.