Schrift und Schriftlichkeit: Die anatolische Hieroglyphenschrift.

• Author: Melchert, H. Craig
• Position: Book review

Schrift und Schriftlichkeit: Die anatolische Hieroglyphenschrift. By ANNICK PAYNE. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2015. Pp. xvii + 232, illus. [euro]68 (paper).

Annick Payne, a recognized expert in the Anatolian hieroglyphs, offers by far the most comprehensive treatment of the subject to date--comprehensive in two senses. First, Payne covers every conceivable aspect of the topic: structure, origin, and chronological development of the script itself; its use (by whom, for what purposes, and in what contexts, in terms of material supports, languages, and competing scripts); the role, social status, and training of scribes and the extent of literacy; and finally the nature of the extant texts (genres, literary structure, and diction).

Second, Payne employs multiple and complementary approaches: general principles of writing systems, relevant parallels from other ancient scripts, self-experimentation with writing materials and consultation with others who have conducted similar experiments; and an engagement with the applicable secondary literature that is generally thorough, up-to-date, and evenhanded (one exception will be noted below).

Another strength is Payne's due caution: she does not hesitate to make clear claims or choices among competing hypotheses, but always properly qualifies them and constantly reminds readers that the limited and skewed nature of the evidence (which future discoveries will only partially alleviate) makes all conclusions even more provisional than is usual in scholarly contexts.

The comprehensive, multifaceted approach and sober handling of the evidence enable Payne to make progress on several points:

1) She demonstrates (pp. 32-34) that the diachronic development of the mixed logographic-phonetic system of the Anatolian hieroglyphs is not, as previously assumed (for this system and more generally), a linear progressive one from entirely logographic to fully phonetic spelling; the use of a logographic "determinative" plus full phonetic spelling is the endpoint and the product of full phonetic spelling alone, not vice-versa.

2) She is able to make a very useful start on a projected full paleographical analysis of sign shapes, diachronic and diatopic (pp. 44-64). Even in this preliminary version, Payne can show that each sign must be treated separately without preconceptions and that easy generalizations are hard to come by: neither relative frequency, chronology, nor geographic distribution are consistently...