literacy

Were women literate in ancient Egyptian society?

Simone Petacchi explores the often fragmentary evidence for women’s voices in ancient Egypt’s written culture.

Rune-inscribed knife

What is it? This broken knife blade is almost 2,000 years old. Currently preserved at a length of c.8cm, its original length is unknown, but was probably just slightly longer than this. On one side, the iron blade is incised…

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East

Review by Diana Bentley The ancient Near East has not always attracted the popular attention it deserves, especially in comparison with other cultures of the surrounding area, like Greece, Rome, and Egypt. This latest work by Amanda H Podany, Professor…

Oldest ink pen found in Ireland

Its discovery is significant because while there is archaeological evidence for secular literacy in the Roman and early medieval periods in Britain, this is not really the case in Ireland

The Secret History of Writing

This intelligent, articulate, and visually imaginative three-part BBC documentary series about five millennia of writing – shortened into two parts for US transmission as A to Z in the PBS series NOVA – is particularly welcome, and will probably be watched for many years.

Above On the front of the Harford Farm Brooch, a clumsy repair to one of the lower panels can be seen. On the reverse, the goldsmith has signed his name in runes.

Writing early medieval England: tracing the first echoes of Anglo-Saxon voices

How did the kingdoms of early medieval England evolve into a single nation? A new exhibition at the British Library combines artefacts and manuscripts to tell the story of the Anglo-Saxons in their own words. Carly Hilts reports.

Above Writing equipment from a votive pit at a villa in Marktoberdorf, Bavaria. The cache includes an inkwell (back), a spatula (middle), and a small knife (front). The presence of this kit might suggest that writing played a role in the rites. ABOVE RIGHT A doctor’s grave from Vindonissa, Switzerland, where a cremation burial was accompanied with two scalpels (right), tweezers (centre), and an inkwell. Although in such cases the deceased are usually assumed to be men, detailed study of the skeletal material revealed the presence of a woman and child.

Age of ink: inkwells and writing in Roman Britain

The power of the Vindolanda and Bloomberg tablets to evoke our Roman past has made them justly famous, but just how widespread were writers in Roman Britain? Hella Eckardt reveals what inkwells can tell us about the arrival of literacy.