This volume explores the significance of literacy for everyday life in the ancient world. It focuses on the use of writing and written materials, the circumstances of their use, and different types of users. The broad geographic and chronologic frame of reference includes many kinds of written materials, from Pharaonic Egypt and ancient China through the early middle ages, yet a focus is placed on the Roman Empire.

• Contents 6
• Preface 10
• Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life – Problems and Results 12
• The Development of Literacy in Early China: With the Nature and Uses of Bronze Inscriptions in Context, and More 24
• I A Global Perspective 24
• The Creation and Spread of Scripts in Ancient India 54
• Literacy in Pharaonic Egypt: Orality and Literacy between Agency and Memory 78
• Anmerkungen zu Literalität und Oralität im teispidisch-achaimenidischen Iran 110
• Der Raum alltäglicher weiblicher Literalität im Achaimeniden-Reich 124
• II Roman Empire 152
• Literacy in Everyday Ancient Life: From Gabii to Gloucestershire 154
• Frauen und Schriftlichkeit im römischen Ägypten 174
• Social Groups 174
• Soldiers and Documents: Insights from Nubia. The Significance of Written Documents in Roman Soldiers’ Everyday Lives 190
• Literacy in Roman Britain 212