Agency in Ancient Writing - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1607321998 ISBN 13: 9781607321996

Publisher: University Press of Colorado, 2012

Synopsis

Individual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archeology. Agency in Ancient Writing addresses this oversight, allowing archeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record.

 

Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems.

 

Agency in Ancient Writing leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.

About this title

About the Author:

Joshua Englehardt is a postdoctoral research associate in Art History and adjunct professor of anthropology at Florida State University.

Review:

"Through the lens of agency, contributors successfully rethink the nature of ancient texts. In so doing they ably demonstrate that when a new theoretical orientation is applied to a taken-for-granted category of data it invigorates both the data and our understanding of the past."
―Marcia-Anne Dobres, University of Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1607321998
• ISBN 13: 9781607321996
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360
• Editor: Englehardt Joshua