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Local ‘Literacies’ in the Making: Early Alphabetic Writing and Modern Literacy Theories

  • Niki Oikonomaki
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Panhellenes at Methone
This chapter is in the book Panhellenes at Methone

Abstract

This paper discusses early alphabetic writing by applying modern literacy theories and aims at reconstructing the ancient literacy event as a social act in terms of temporal, spatial, and material analysis. It is argued that an examination of the key constituents of a specific literacy event, namely inscribed object, inscriber, reader, text, space, and time, offers an understanding of the geographically and socially located ancient literacy. Early alphabetic inscriptions on pots, a ‘socially open’ writing medium, are viewed as a ‘sensible’ experience and as the visible evidence of literacy at the time of its production, consumption, and perception. Thus, inscribed pottery from Methone, part of an alphabetic network, is representative of the many facets of literacy from a micro- level aspect of the specifically located literacy act to a macro-level aspect of epigraphic practices and habits as literacy emerges as a value.

Abstract

This paper discusses early alphabetic writing by applying modern literacy theories and aims at reconstructing the ancient literacy event as a social act in terms of temporal, spatial, and material analysis. It is argued that an examination of the key constituents of a specific literacy event, namely inscribed object, inscriber, reader, text, space, and time, offers an understanding of the geographically and socially located ancient literacy. Early alphabetic inscriptions on pots, a ‘socially open’ writing medium, are viewed as a ‘sensible’ experience and as the visible evidence of literacy at the time of its production, consumption, and perception. Thus, inscribed pottery from Methone, part of an alphabetic network, is representative of the many facets of literacy from a micro- level aspect of the specifically located literacy act to a macro-level aspect of epigraphic practices and habits as literacy emerges as a value.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Table of Contents IX
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Graphê and Archaeology
  6. Transport Amphorae from Methone: An Interdisciplinary Study of Production and Trade ca. 700 BCE 9
  7. The Archaeological Background of the Earliest Graffiti and Finds from Methone 20
  8. To Write and to Paint: More Early Iron Age Potters′ Marks in the Aegean 36
  9. Counting on Pots? Reflections on Numerical Notations in Early Iron Age Greece 105
  10. Texts and Amphoras in the Methone “Ypogeio” 123
  11. Part II: Graphê, Alphabet, Dialect, and Language
  12. From Gabii and Gordion to Eretria and Methone: the Rise of the Greek Alphabet 135
  13. Alphabets and Dialects in the Euboean Colonies of Sicily and Magna Graecia or What Could Have Happened in Methone 165
  14. Alphabet and Phonology at Methone: Beginning a Typology of Methone Alphabetic Symbols and an Alternative Hypothesis for Reading Hακεσάνδρō 182
  15. Thoughts on the Initial Aspiration of HAKEΣANΔPO 219
  16. The Impact of Late Geometric Greek Inscriptions from Methone on Understanding the Development of Early Euboean Alphabet 232
  17. Methone of Pieria: a Reassessment of Epigraphical Evidence (with a Special Attention to Pleonastic Sigma) 242
  18. Part III: Graphê and Culture
  19. Local ‘Literacies’ in the Making: Early Alphabetic Writing and Modern Literacy Theories 261
  20. Form Follows Function? Toward an Aesthetics of Early Greek Inscriptions at Methone 285
  21. Wine and the Early History of the Greek Alphabet 309
  22. Bibliography and Abbreviations 329
  23. Notes on Contributors 360
  24. General Index 365
  25. Index Locorum 374
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110515695-014

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Table of Contents IX
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Graphê and Archaeology
  6. Transport Amphorae from Methone: An Interdisciplinary Study of Production and Trade ca. 700 BCE 9
  7. The Archaeological Background of the Earliest Graffiti and Finds from Methone 20
  8. To Write and to Paint: More Early Iron Age Potters′ Marks in the Aegean 36
  9. Counting on Pots? Reflections on Numerical Notations in Early Iron Age Greece 105
  10. Texts and Amphoras in the Methone “Ypogeio” 123
  11. Part II: Graphê, Alphabet, Dialect, and Language
  12. From Gabii and Gordion to Eretria and Methone: the Rise of the Greek Alphabet 135
  13. Alphabets and Dialects in the Euboean Colonies of Sicily and Magna Graecia or What Could Have Happened in Methone 165
  14. Alphabet and Phonology at Methone: Beginning a Typology of Methone Alphabetic Symbols and an Alternative Hypothesis for Reading Hακεσάνδρō 182
  15. Thoughts on the Initial Aspiration of HAKEΣANΔPO 219
  16. The Impact of Late Geometric Greek Inscriptions from Methone on Understanding the Development of Early Euboean Alphabet 232
  17. Methone of Pieria: a Reassessment of Epigraphical Evidence (with a Special Attention to Pleonastic Sigma) 242
  18. Part III: Graphê and Culture
  19. Local ‘Literacies’ in the Making: Early Alphabetic Writing and Modern Literacy Theories 261
  20. Form Follows Function? Toward an Aesthetics of Early Greek Inscriptions at Methone 285
  21. Wine and the Early History of the Greek Alphabet 309
  22. Bibliography and Abbreviations 329
  23. Notes on Contributors 360
  24. General Index 365
  25. Index Locorum 374
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