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Faculty of Classics

 

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Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) is a European Research Council funded project based in the Faculty of Classics. Beginning in April 2016, it will run for five years, until 2021.

The project

The aim of the CREWS project is to take an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to the history of writing, developing new methodologies for studying writing systems and their social context. The project researchers will be working on specific case studies relating to inscriptions of the ancient Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean and Levant (c.2000-600 BC). By looking at the ways in which writing systems were developed and used, we can study not only the systems themselves and the languages written in them, but also the cultural settings in which they were adapted and maintained.

Two central research questions underpin the project:

1) How can we tell how different writing systems are related to each other?

and

2) What effect does the social context in which it is used have on writing?

By focusing on the Mediterranean in 2nd and 1st millennia BC, the project will be able to investigate writing during a period when we know there were high levels of contact between different areas. Against this backdrop of linguistic and cultural interconnections, a study of how writing was passed on and adapted for new uses has the potential to give new insights into social history.

Writing systems under investigation

- The Aegean scripts: Cretan Hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B

- Ugaritic cuneiform (and its relationship with other cuneiform systems such as Akkadian)

- The Phoenician ‘alphabet’ or ‘abjad’ (and its relationship with other systems such as the Aramaic and Hebrew alphabets)

- The Greek alphabet (and its development from the Phoenician system and relationships with other early alphabets in e.g. Anatolia and Italy)

Find out more

You can find out more about the researchers working on the CREWS project by visiting our ‘members’ page.

To follow the project’s progress, visit the CREWS blog at https://crewsproject.wordpress.com/.

Latest news

Teaching Associate in Greek literature (Temporary Cover)

6 February 2025

The Faculty of Classics is seeking to appoint a Temporary Teaching Associate in Classics (Greek literature) from 1 October 2025 for two years. This post is open to those, at any stage in their career, with a primary research and teaching interest in ancient Greek literature. The successful applicant will benefit from the...

Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient Greek History)

4 February 2025

The Faculty of Classics is seeking to appoint an Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient Greek History) from 1 September 2025. The role is open to those, at any stage in their career, with a primary research interest in Archaic/Classical/Hellenistic Greek History. The successful candidate will have the ability, or be...

Philip Leverhulme Prizes 2024

18 October 2024

The Faculty is delighted to announce that both Dr Lea Niccolai and Dr Henry Spelman have been awarded Philip Leverhulme Prizes in the 2024 competition. Professor Anna Vignoles, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, said: “Now in its twenty-third year, this scheme continues to attract applications from extraordinarily high...

Elen Wynne Vanstone Award

3 October 2024

The Faculty would like to congratulate Sólveig Hilmarsdóttir for winning the The British Federation of Women Graduates' Elen Wynne Vanstone Award for her work Talis homo qualis oratio: social status and its connection to the language of Roman writers. Sólveig works on the interface between Latin linguistics and Latin...