Inscriptions and Papyri in ancient Greece

The transmission of ancient documents has occurred through several main sources, namely inscriptions, papyri, and literary works preserved in medieval manuscripts. Inscriptions, or epigraphy, usually refer to any writing preserved on a durable material such as stone or metal. The writing may be impressed, cut, or scratched; and it may be a public or private document. Papyri are written with ink on the papyrus plant, and there was also a subsidiary form on pottery or pieces of pottery called ostraca. While engravings on coins can be considered inscriptions, they are usually associated with the study of numismatics.

The earliest inscriptions from the Greek world come from the Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations, with incised tablets containing Linear B and Linear A writing. Linear B has been shown to be an early form of Greek, while the even earlier Linear A has not been deciphered. After a period of about three centuries corresponding to the Dorian invasion or the Dark Ages, the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, adapting it to their language and creating their own form of script. The earliest inscriptions are seen on clay pots, featuring names and occasional comments. Many of the names represented on the pots are those of heroes or the manufacturer or potter.

MInscription from Athens. (The Metropolitan useum of Art/Fletcher Fund, 1926)

The next phase became more expansive, and by the seventh century, there were public inscriptions, usually in the form of dedications to gods on temples or names on gravestones. Like the Phoenicians, the Greeks would write from right to left, or retrograde. If a second line was needed, they would write under the first one, but now it went left to right. This form of writing is known as boustrophedon, meaning “as the ox turns,” coming from bous meaning ox, strophe to turn, and don meaning like in a manner, and it allows the reader to continue to scan the line without a break.

The letters were also turned in the appropriate direction to ensure that the reader could follow them. If a third line was needed, it again would run from right to left, and so forth. Some inscriptions from the seventh to sixth centuries were also written vertically. It is possible that different writers had their own styles and mannerisms.

When the Greeks began to set up formal and public documents, they again altered their form and began to write all their lines from left to right, abandoning both the boustrophedon approach and the Phoenician system of writing. It was also during the sixth century that the Greeks, mainly the Athenians, adopted another format, stoichedon, meaning “in a line.” Here, the letters were aligned exactly horizontally and vertically and were of the same size.

This allowed symmetry, which the Greeks admired and strived to achieve. This type of system continued during the Classical Age, but by the end of the third century, during the Hellenistic Age, stoichedon had disappeared, probably due to the continual new influences from the east and new Greek speakers and writers. Scholars can use stoichedon to help determine a missing letter or words.

Many of the Greek inscriptions provide important legal and economic material for the study of history. For example, during the Athenian Empire and Delian League, the Athenians set up tribute lists. These inscriptions from the Acropolis of Athens recorded the finances of the empire, specifically what member-cities paid in the form of tribute or taxes. These particular inscriptions record the payment to Athena and accounted for one-sixtieth of the tribute; therefore, it is possible to determine what each city paid in total. The inscriptions date from 454 to 406 (with some interruptions), when the treasury was moved from Delos to Athens.

Also dating from this period is the so-called code of Gortyn, which was a law code from Gortyn Crete. The code enumerated many of the city’s laws at that time, but it also included many of the laws that existed before the Classical Age. It deals with a variety of topics, including slaves, family law, property rights and trial procedure. Another fragmentary inscription, the Parian Marble, recorded in chronological order events beginning with Cecrops, the first king of Athens, from 1580 to 263, and it included a variety of history, religious, and military events.

Different types of inscriptions include those found at Greek temples. Some of these inscriptions laid out the rules and regulations for sacrifices. The temple inscription at Delos laid down the amount of property held by the temple (which was significant). Often, these inscriptions also indicate how much wealth a temple might receive in the future, such as the Delian League’s treasury. Other inscriptions, such as at Delphi, recorded gifts made to the god Apollo by city-states in offers of thanksgiving. Some inscriptions record the various types of priests and the rituals they undertook when offering sacrifices.

Other inscriptions were on votive offerings made by individuals to show how they were cured, to give thanksgiving, or to ask for help. In the realm of political inscriptions, a variety of types exist, such as the commemoration of the victory at Salamis by the Athenians and inscriptions set up to show how colonies were established. Many inscriptions are dedications for buildings made by the state or by individuals. These were created to honor the individual or family, affording political and social benefits. A series of inscriptions relate to the ephebic system at Athens, which was created to train young men to become citizens; it was reserved for a specific age group and encouraged the city and its inhabitants to foster ideal behavior.

Allied with inscriptions are papyri. This branch of writing is based on the papyrus plant, grown in Egypt. Having a long history dating to the First Dynasty of Egypt, it became one of the chief forms of written communication in the ancient Mediterranean. Papyri have been found as early as 2500, the time of the Great Pyramid at Giza. The Egyptians maintained a monopoly on the production of papyrus, but they clearly wanted to ensure that it was available so they could export it in sufficient quantities.

In the manufacture of papyrus, the papyrus plant has the outer layer removed, leaving the inner fibrous pith, which then was cut into strips of about one and a half feet long. These wet strips were placed side by side with their outer edges overlapping, and other layers were placed at right angles over the first layer and the two were glued and hammered together, turning the two sheets into one. The sheets were dried under pressure and then polished by rubbing them with a stone or other round object to make them smooth.

Sometimes the sheets were cut into small pieces and glued together into a roll. These rolls had the horizontal strips of the papyrus on the front side (recto) and the vertical ones on the back side (verso). The recto side would be written on first, and when the papyrus was reused (a common phenomenon) the verso often would be written on. These sheets were often wrapped around two sticks so that they could be rolled and unrolled at will.

Since papyrus is a hardy plant and its cellulose is resistant to rot, it survived well in the hot, dry Egyptian desert. Many finds have been made that document over 3,000 years of use. There are very few examples of papyri surviving in Europe from this period due to the humid climate. Inscriptions and later papyri allow many nonliterary materials to be known and help scholars corroborate or refute the literary records and examine the evolution of Greek life.