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Carraro - An Introduction from the case-study of Cretan writing systems and the Mycenaean Linear B

Flavia Carraro - Chercheur correspondant Centre Norbert Elias – CNRS Marseille
Marie Curie Fellow, DNRF's CTR & University of Copenhagen

The decipherment of ancient scripts
The courses constitute an introduction to the issue of the decipherment of ancient writing systems and scripts. Starting from the case study of the decipherment of the Linear B, the other great decipherments - Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiforms, mayan - will be illustrated. In particular, we will discuss the question of the reading of writing and languages from the antiquity and of the relationship between texts and historical, archaeological and philological interpretation of the context of their redaction and use. Finally, we will focus on the characteristics of the scientific procedure that decipherment constitutes considering its occidental and alphabetical matrix, and put into perspective this extraordinary « exploit » from the historiographical and epistemological points of view.

La decifrazione delle scritture antiche
Questo ciclo di lezioni costituisce un'introduzione alla problematica della decifrazione delle scritture antiche. A partire dal caso-studio della decifrazione della scrittura Lineare B, illustreremo le altre grandi decifrazioni « archeologiche » (geroglifico egiziano, cuneiforme, maya) e approfondiremo la questione della lettura delle scritture e delle lingue antiche e del rapporto tra testi e interpetazione storica, archeologica e filologica del contesto nel quale furono redatti. Si tratterà quindi di focalizzare l'attenzione sulle caratteristiche peculiari di una procedura scientifica di matrice profondamente occidentale ed alfabetica, e infine di mettere in prospettiva da un punto di vista storiografico ed epistemologico quello che viene considerato uno dei più grandi exploit della storia dell'umanità.

BIBLIOGRAFIA INDICATIVA
E.J.W.BARBER 1974 Archaeological Decipherment. A Handbook, Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey ; E.L.BENNETT 1989 “Michael Ventris and the Pelasgian solution”, in Y.Duhoux, T.Palaima, E.Bennett, Problems in Decipherment, 9-23, Peeters, Louvain-La-Neuve;  John CHADWICK 1977 Lineare B. L'enigma della scrittura micenea Torino ; E.Doblhofer 1959 Le déchiffrement des écritures, Arthaud, Paris ; M.FOX 2013 The riddle of the Labyrinth, Harper & Collins ; L.GODART 2001 L'invenzione della scrittura: dal Nilo alla Grecia Torino ; D.KHAN 1967 The Codebreakers. The story of secret writing, Mac Milian, New York; B.LION & C.MICHEL 2008 Les écritures cunéiformes et leur déchiffrement, Travaux de la Maison archéologie & ethnologie, René-Ginouvès, 4 ; M.POPE 1975 The story of decipherment, Thames & Hudson, London; A.ROBINSON 2002 The Man who deciphered the Linear B. The Story of Michael Ventris Thames & Hudson ; A.ROBINSON 2002 (2009). Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts. New York: Thames & Hudson ; S.SINGH 1999 The codebook. The science of secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum cryptography, Doubleday, New York.

This section contains slides and notes used for a seminar delivered at the University of Florence, for the Aegean Civilization course.

Table of contents :
1) Anthropology of writing  lesson 1 (855.40 KB)
2) Aegean writing systems and scripts   lesson 2 (3.63 MB)

Because the seminar was for Italian students, the texts and the slides are in Italian.

Comments, corrections, questions: f.carraro@yahoo.fr

The (not original) drawings and photos are reproduced only for personal use and for scientific and educational purposes. The reproduced materials can't be used for commercial purposes.