Inscriptions

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the name given to records, not of the nature of a book, which are engraved or inscribed on stone, metal, clay, and similar materials. Since ancient documents committed to such destructible material as papyrus, parchpyrus, parchment, or paper have largely perished, inscriptions on harder materials are in many cases the sole sources of our knowledge of ancient history and of early languages; and, even when MSS. have been preserved by copyists, inscriptions, which preserve the original forms of the letters, are of supreme palæographical importance. All the books of the Phœnicians, Sabæans, Etruscans, Babylonians, Assyrians, Numidians, and Iberians have perished, and hence a considerable portion of our knowledge of early Oriental history is derived solely from inscriptions. A very large number of inscriptions are mortuary epitaphs. Others, usually the most important, are records of the events in the reigns of kings. Others are dedications of altars, temples, or aqueducts. Many are of a religious character, recording donations to temples or in honor of the gods. Others are commercial contracts, banking records, receipts for taxes scratched on potsherds, or on walls, imprecations, and inscriptions on seals, gems, or vases. The chief classes are Semitic, Greek, Latin, Runic, Cuneiform, Egyptian, and Indian. American Inscriptions. In Greenland, on the shores of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, a few genuine Runic inscriptions have been discovered. They probably date from the 11th and 12th centuries, and were doubtless executed by Icelandic colonists or explorers. There are numerous inscriptions on the walls of the palaces and temples in the ruined cities of Yucatan, Honduras, Mexico, and Guatemala. They are written in unknown characters, which appear to constitute a system of hieroglyphic or pictorial writing, akin probably to that of the Aztec MSS., which as yet have been only imperfectly deciphered.