From Single Sign to Pseudo-Script

Preface List of Figures

Prologue

Ancient Egyptian Identity Marks in Theoretical and Comparative Perspective

1 Making Sense of Funny Signs â 1.1â An Ancient Text from Berlin â 1.2â Documentary Texts, Hieratic and Otherwise â 1.3â The Research History of the Necropolis Workmen's Marks â 1.4â A Quick Lesson in Hieroglyphs â 1.5â Marks and Hieroglyphs â 1.6â The Aim of the Present Book

2 Identity Marks, Egyptian and Other â 2.1â A Unique Document â 2.2â Ancient Egyptian Pot Marks â 2.3â Builders' Marks, from Teams to Individuals â 2.4â Marking Systems Worldwide â 2.5â Masons' Marks in Europe, Medieval and Later â 2.6â The Morphology of Masons' Marks â 2.7â Why Were Masons' Marks Applied? â 2.8â Masons and Masters â 2.9â Masons' Marks in Families and Workshops â 2.10â General Characteristics of Marking Systems

3 Writing and Other Sign Systems â 3.1â Theories of the Sign â 3.2â The Sign in Structuralism: Paradigm and Syntagma, Signifier and Signified â 3.3â The Sign According to Peirce: Referentiality and Semiosis â 3.4â Visual and Material Communication: To Write, or Not to Write? â 3.5â Writing and Other Graphic Systems, Independently and Together â 3.6â Literacy: Mastering Writing ... and Much More

The Deir el-Medina Marking System

4 The Setting: The Workmen of the Royal Tomb and Their Textual Legacy â 4.1â An Exceptional Village â 4.2â The Early History of the Royal Necropolis and Its Workmen â 4.3â Great Changes for Egypt and for the Royal Necropolis â 4.4â Ramesside Necropolis Administration, and Administrators â 4.5â The End of the Royal Necropolis â 4.6â Hieratic Necropolis Records ... by the Thousands â 4.7â The Nature of the Documentary Texts â 4.8â Local Knowledge and Output, Textual and Visual

5 The Use of the Workmen's Marks: Historical Overview â 5.1â The Earliest Marks of the Royal Necropolis Workmen â 5.2â The Origin of the Marking System â 5.3â A Break in the History of the Marking System? â 5.4â Nineteenth-Dynasty Ostraca with Marks â 5.5â Marks and Families â 5.6â The Function of the Nineteenth-Dynasty Marks â 5.7â The Twentieth-Dynasty Duty Rosters â 5.8â Other Types of Record from the Twentieth Dynasty â 5.9â The Late Twentieth Dynasty

6 How the Men Came by Their Marks, and Vice Versa â 6.1â Marks and Their Users â 6.2â Long- and Short-Lived Marks: Pomegranate, Lotus and Jackal â 6.3â Long-Lived Marks and Their Graphic Variety: The Families of Qaha and Sennedjem â 6.4â Short-Lived Marks: Name, Reputation and Status â 6.5â Mark, Family and Position â 6.6â Morphology: Distinctive Forms versus Allomorphs â 6.7â Sign Categories and Fuzzy Borders â 6.8â The Role of Writing and Literacy â 6.9â Morphology and Semiosis: Anything Goes? â 6.10â Historical and Functional Context: Graphic Communication and Literacy

Epilogue: The Alphabet

Bibliographical Essay

References Timetable Index