"Epigraphy (from Ancient Greek ἐπιγραφή (epigraphḗ) 'inscription') is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the writing and the writers."
This subfield deals with the study of written inscriptions, such as those found on monuments, walls, and buildings in dead languages.
Alphabet and Script Systems: The various writing systems that have been used throughout history, including the basics of how to read and write in each one.
Language and Linguistics: The study of language structure, grammar, and syntax, including how these elements may change over time.
Paleography: The study of ancient handwriting, including the identification and interpretation of individual letters and words.
History and Chronology: Understanding the historical context in which inscriptions were created, as well as basic understanding of chronological tools and concepts.
Archaeology: The study of material culture and the physical remains of archaeological sites or other ancient remains, including how epigraphic texts fit into the larger archaeological record.
Epigraphy as Art: Understanding how epigraphic texts can be appreciated for their artistic value as well as their historical and linguistic significance.
Iconography: Studying the relationships between epigraphic texts and images, and how they are used together to create meaning in different contexts.
Epigraphic Genres: Understanding the different types of epigraphic texts, such as historical inscriptions, dedicatory inscriptions, and funerary inscriptions, and the contexts in which they were created.
Religion and Mythology: Insight into the role that epigraphic inscriptions played in religious and mythological contexts within different cultures.
Material Culture and Technology: Understanding how the technology of writing and the medium in which inscriptions were recorded (e.g. stone, papyrus, clay tablets) impacted the creation, preservation, and meaning of epigraphic texts.
Latin Inscriptions: Inscriptions in the Latin language which flourished during the Roman Empire and is used as the primary language for official documents, inscriptions and monuments.
Greek Inscriptions: Inscriptions in the Greek language, which is extensively used for ancient Greek inscriptions.
Hieroglyphs: Inscriptions written in Egyptian hieroglyphs is a complex set of signs, symbols, ideograms, and phonetic systems.
Ogham: An ancient Irish alphabet inscription used mainly for inscribing stones and is primarily found in Ireland and Scotland.
Runes: Runes are inscriptions in Nordic and Germanic languages that originated in Europe.
Etruscan: Inscriptions written in the Etruscan language, which belongs to a pre-Roman civilization that existed in Italy from the 8th to the 3rd centuries BCE.
Phoenician: Inscriptions written in the Phoenician language, which was the primary language of the Phoenician civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean during the first millennium BCE.
Aramaic: Inscriptions written in the Aramaic language, which was the primary language of the ancient Near East civilizations, mainly in the territories of modern-day Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Sanskrit: Inscriptions in the Sanskrit language, an ancient language of India which is still used for religious and cultural ceremonies in present-day India.
Old English: Inscriptions in Old English, the oldest form of the English language spoken around the 5th through to the 11th century A.D.
Hebrew: Inscriptions in the Hebrew language, used for Jewish religious and cultural purposes, and is considered one of the oldest languages in the world.
Cuneiform: Inscriptions in the cuneiform script, usually inscribed in clay tablets, used for writing the languages of ancient Mesopotamia, including Akkadian, Sumerian, and Babylonian.
"Specifically excluded from epigraphy are the historical significance of an epigraph as a document and the artistic value of a literary composition."
"A person using the methods of epigraphy is called an epigrapher or epigraphist."
"For example, the Behistun inscription is an official document of the Achaemenid Empire engraved on native rock at a location in Iran. Epigraphists are responsible for reconstructing, translating, and dating the trilingual inscription and finding any relevant circumstances."
"Epigraphy is a primary tool of archaeology when dealing with literate cultures."
"Epigraphy also helps identify a forgery: epigraphic evidence formed part of the discussion concerning the James Ossuary."
"Epigraphy overlaps other competences such as numismatics or palaeography."
"The media and the forms of the graphemes are diverse: engravings in stone or metal, scratches on rock, impressions in wax, embossing on cast metal, cameo or intaglio on precious stones, painting on ceramic or in fresco."
"Not all inscribed texts are public, however: in Mycenaean Greece, the deciphered texts of 'Linear B' were revealed to be largely used for economic and administrative record keeping."
"The study of ideographic inscriptions may also be called ideography."
"The German equivalent Sinnbildforschung was a scientific discipline in the Third Reich, but was later dismissed as being highly ideological."
"Epigraphic research overlaps with the study of petroglyphs, which deals with specimens of pictographic, ideographic, and logographic writing."
"The study of ancient handwriting, usually in ink, is a separate field, palaeography."
"Epigraphy also differs from iconography as it confines itself to meaningful symbols containing messages, rather than dealing with images."
"...classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts..."
"...and drawing conclusions about the writing and the writers."
"The US Library of Congress classifies epigraphy as one of the auxiliary sciences of history."
"Informal inscribed texts are 'graffiti' in its original sense."
"The character of the writing, the subject of epigraphy, is a matter quite separate from the nature of the text, which is studied in itself."
"When compared to books, most inscriptions are short."