Materialität, Textsorten, Schreiberhände : eine experimentelle digitale Analyse zu Schriftzeichen der 18. Dynastie

Abstract

In hieratic writing, the allographs of a grapheme have a great variety of forms. This richness of shapes can be explained by the numerous factors that influence the hand of the scribe and the execution of the signs: the scribe's education, different levels of training, the materiality of the writing surface and the choice of writing instruments, the text type, and many further aspects. Research on these aspects – as well as the question of determining individual writing characteristics vs. general writing habits – requires large quantities of hieratic characters. Without digital support, such an analysis is hardly possible. Whereas other disciplines in the humanities already have tools for digital paleographic analysis, there is nothing comparable for hieratic writing. Therefore, it is necessary to test existing tools developed by/for other disciplines to see if and how they can be applied to the study of hieratic writing. This experiment is testing such a tool, and hieratic signs are analyzed digitally concerning their shape, materiality, and text types.