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Epigraphy (Greek, επιγραφή - "written upon") is the study of inscriptions engraved into stone or other permanent materials, or cast in metal, the science of classifying them, elucidating them and assessing what conclusions can be deduced from them.
The character of the writing is a matter quite separate from the nature of the text. Texts are usually inscribed in stone for public view (or the view of the god, as in the Persian Behistun inscription), and so they are essentially different from the written texts of each culture. This is not always true: in Minoan culture the deciphered texts of "Linear B" were revealed to be largely temple tallies of tribute for the gods.
Often only the epigraphic texts have survived. A case in point is the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, where the written codices were collected and burned in the 16th century, and the bulk of remaining epigraphical documentation are the monumental glyphs . Specialist epigraphers have decoded Mayan inscriptions in the 20th century, among them J. Eric S. Thompson, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Yuri Knorozov, Linda Schele, and David Stewart.
Epigraphy is a primary tool of archaeology when dealing with literate cultures. The US Library of Congress classifies epigraphy as one of the "Auxiliary Sciences of History".
The science of epigraphy has been developing steadily since the 16th century,. Individual contributions have been made by epigraphers such as Georg Fabricius (1516 - 1571); August Wilhelm Zumpt (1815-1877); Theodor Mommsen (1817 - 1903); Emil Hübner (1834 - 1901); Franz Cumont (1868 - 1947);
Specialists depend on on-going series of volumes in which newly-discovered inscriptions are published, often in Latin, not unlike the biologists' Zoological Record the raw material of history. Such series include (all the standard series need listing)
Epigraphy also helps identify a forgery, as in the James Ossuary or the Kensington Runestone.
Since epigraphy is a science of the particular, references to epigraphic evidence appear in most Wikipedia entries discussing aspects of Ancient history.
Other studies of the writing of texts include:
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