EPIGRAPHY

a term used both for the study of inscriptions as a whole, and for the science which deals with their cla ification and decipherment. The attention of the epigraphist is given to inscriptions upon stone, brick, metal, and other comparatively permanent material, as compared with writings upon parchment, papyrus, or paper; but he excludes inscriptions upon coins, which are in the department of the numismatist. The science of epigraphy is of immense importance for a knowledge of the past, the subject including inscriptions so far apart in point of time as Egyptian records of the days of Mena (4700 B.c.), and the Greek hexameters that commemorate the death in West mor land of a young Syrian soldier in the army of Septimius Severus. Of still more recent date are the Runic inscriptions discovered in Green land, which seem to place beyond a doubt the fact of Icelandic explorers having reached that country in the eleventh or twelfth century. The most important inscriptions are Egyptian, Cuneiform (Babylonian and A yrian), Semitic, Greek, Latin, Indian, and Runic. The inscribed writings include epitaphs on the dead, records of important events, dedications of public buildings, with such comparatively private matters as receipts, contracts, and other busine transactions. While inscriptions form a valuable source of knowledge, they cannot be accepted as invariably reliable. Reasons might in some cases exist for making a false or misleading record, as in the case of a eulogistic tombstone, while mistakes in spelling and other details may be due to a carele workman. The literature which deals with the science of epigraphy is very large.