ENGLISH

Everyday Writing in the Graeco-Roman East

By Roger S. Bagnall

Book information

Publisher
University of California Press
Year
2011
ISBN
9780520948525
DOI
10.1525/9780520948525
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (3257931 bytes)
Series
Sather Classical Lectures; 69
Pages
200\194
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-21 14:06:10

Description

Most of the everyday writing from the ancient world—that is, informal writing not intended for a long life or wide public distribution—has perished. Reinterpreting the silences and blanks of the historical record, leading papyrologist Roger S. Bagnall convincingly argues that ordinary people—from Britain to Egypt to Afghanistan—used writing in their daily lives far more extensively than has been recognized. Marshalling new and little-known evidence, including remarkable graffiti recently discovered in Smyrna, Bagnall presents a fascinating analysis of writing in different segments of society. His book offers a new picture of literacy in the ancient world in which Aramaic rivals Greek and Latin as a great international language, and in which many other local languages develop means of written expression alongside these metropolitan tongues.

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