Abstract/Summary

At the heart of this book lies the nature of the relationship between the material culture of writing and socio-cultural identities in the Roman period. Literacy was an important skill in the ancient world, and power could be exercised over and through texts. Writing equipment was displayed on monuments and placed into burials to display status as well as age and gender. This book offers a new angle on Roman literacies by examining a previously neglected object, metal inkwells. It explores their forms, chronology and distribution across the Roman Empire and analyses social and economic meanings through the funerary data. Men, women, adults and children were buried with writing equipment but practices varied over time and in different parts of the Empire. The book reviews recent work on ancient literacies and adds a distinctive material turn to our understanding of this crucial skill and the embodied practices of its use.