Epigraphists

Epigraphists are scholars who study inscriptions—texts carved, painted, or written on durable materials—from ancient and historic cultures. The field covers monumental inscriptions on stone and metal, grave markers, dedicatory monuments, seals, ceramics, and other surfaces. Epigraphists seek to read, date, interpret, and edit these texts to illuminate political events, religious practices, laws, social structures, and everyday life.

Practically, epigraphy draws on philology, paleography, archaeology, and history. Scholars may specialize by language or region but often work across disciplines. Training typically involves ancient languages, archaeological methods, and textual criticism. Epigraphists work in universities, museums, archives, and research institutes, and collaborate with archaeologists, historians, linguists, and art historians.

Core activities include deciphering scripts, transcribing inscriptions, translating texts, establishing text-critical editions, and identifying provenance, dating clues, and historical context. Increasingly, they employ fieldwork, photography, rubbings, 3D scanning, and digital databases to document inscriptions and to facilitate access for researchers.

Epigraphy provides primary evidence for political organization, legal practices, religion, and daily life across cultures—from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt to Greece and Rome, as well as later periods worldwide. It complements literary sources and helps reconstruct chronology and cultural interactions. The field is continually enhanced by conservation efforts and digital technologies, which expand access to inscriptions and support collaborative scholarship.