Paths into Script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean (Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici, Nuova Serie. Supplemento, 1)

The collection of essays edited by Silvia Ferrara and Miguel Valério, which inaugurates the supplement series of SMEA NS, will serve numerous purposes. First, as the Editors themselves stress in their Introduction, by focusing on the scripts that appeared in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the second millennium BC, this volume is intended to counteract the dearth of studies on this region compared to the many discussions available of the same topic for the ancient Near East. Equally striking is the absence, in the same context, of a cross-cultural approach aimed at identifying similar processes leading to the same results in different parts of the world. The broad comparative framework and multi-regional perspective adopted in the volume as a whole are fundamental for shedding light on how and why writing appears in the Mediterranean environment, and for identifying variables, similarities and differences in local developments. From detailed accounts of specific Mediterranean contexts, to re-considerations of the chronology of significant collections of materials, to the cultural history of the use of writing in different parts of the world, Paths into Script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean succeeds in clarifying the origins, contexts and internal processes of the development of writing under different circumstances.