Epigraphy in the context of "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum"

Ethiopian historiography includes the ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern disciplines of recording the history of Ethiopia, including both native and foreign sources. The roots of Ethiopian historical writing can be traced back to the ancient Kingdom of Aksum (c. AD 100 – c. 940). These early texts were written in either the Ethiopian Ge'ez script or the Greek alphabet, and included a variety of mediums such as manuscripts and epigraphic inscriptions on monumental stelae and obelisks documenting contemporary events. The writing of history became an established genre in Ethiopian literature during the early Solomonic dynasty (1270–1974). In this period, written histories were usually in the form of royal biographies and dynastic chronicles, supplemented by hagiographic literature and universal histories in the form of annals. Christian mythology became a linchpin of medieval Ethiopian historiography due to works such as the Orthodox Kebra Nagast. This reinforced the genealogical traditions of Ethiopia's Solomonic dynasty rulers, which asserted that they were descendants of Solomon, the legendary King of Israel.

Ethiopian historiographic literature has been traditionally dominated by Christian theology and the chronology of the Bible. There was also considerable influence from Muslim, pagan and foreign elements from within the Horn of Africa and beyond. Diplomatic ties with Christendom were established in the Roman era under Ethiopia's first Christian king, Ezana of Axum, in the 4th century AD, and were renewed in the Late Middle Ages with embassies traveling to and from medieval Europe. Building on the legacy of ancient Greek and Roman historical writings about Ethiopia, medieval European chroniclers made attempts to describe Ethiopia, its people, and religious faith in connection to the mythical Prester John, who was viewed as a potential ally against Islamic powers. Ethiopian history and its peoples were also mentioned in works of medieval Islamic historiography and even Chinese encyclopedias, travel literature, and official histories.

Etruscan (/ɪˈtrʌskən/ ih-TRUSK-ən) was the language of the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria, in Etruria Padana and Etruria Campana in what is now Italy. Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually superseded by it. Around 13,000 Etruscan inscriptions have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length; some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek, or Phoenician; and a few dozen purported loanwords. Attested from 700 BC to 50 AD, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study. Nowadays, it is generally agreed to be in the Tyrsenian language family, but before it gained currency as one of the Tyrsenian languages, it was commonly treated as an isolate, although there were also a number of other less well-known hypotheses.

The consensus among linguists and Etruscologists is that Etruscan was a Pre-Indo-European and Paleo-European language, closely related to the Raetic language that was spoken in the Alps, and to the Lemnian language, attested in a few inscriptions on Lemnos.

Ancient Macedonian was the language or dialect spoken by the ancient Macedonians during the 1st millennium BC. It was either an ancient Greek dialect—part of Northwest Greek or Aeolic Greek—or a distinct Indo-European language, related to Greek and part of the Hellenic branch. Spoken originally in the kingdom of Macedon, it gradually fell out of use during the 4th century BC, marginalized by the use of Attic Greek by the Macedonian aristocracy, the Ancient Greek dialect that became the basis of Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the Hellenistic period. It became extinct during either the Hellenistic or Roman imperial period, and was entirely replaced by Koine Greek.

While the bulk of surviving public and private inscriptions found in ancient Macedonia were written in Attic Greek (and later in Koine Greek), fragmentary documentation of a vernacular local Macedonian variety comes from onomastic evidence, ancient glossaries, and recent epigraphic discoveries in the Greek region of Macedonia, such as the curse tablets from Pella and Pydna.

The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (French pronunciation: [akademi dez‿ɛ̃skʁipsjɔ̃ e bɛl lɛtʁ]) is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope is the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy), historical literature (see Belles-lettres) and the cultures of the civilizations of antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the classical period, as well as those of non-European civilizations.

The pre-Columbian (or pre-Hispanic) history of the territory now making up the country of Mexico is known through the work of archaeologists and epigraphers, and through the accounts of Spanish conquistadores, settlers, and clergymen, as well as those of the indigenous chroniclers of the immediate post-conquest period.

Human presence in the Mexican region was once thought to date back 40,000 years, based upon what were believed to be ancient human footprints discovered in the Valley of Mexico; but, after further investigation using radioactive dating, it appears that this was an overestimate. It is currently unclear whether 21,000-year-old campfire remains found in the Valley of Mexico are the earliest human remains in Mexico. Indigenous peoples of Mexico began to selectively breed maize plants around 8000 BC. Evidence shows a marked increase in pottery working by 2300 BC and the beginning of intensive corn farming between 1800 and 1500 BC.

An ostracon (Greek: ὄστρακον ostrakon, plural ὄστρακα ostraka) is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ostraca refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone that have writing scratched into them. Usually these are considered to have been broken off before the writing was added; ancient people used the cheap, plentiful, and durable broken pieces of pottery around them as a convenient medium to write on for a wide variety of purposes, mostly very short inscriptions, but in some cases very long.

Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (Aramaic: ארמית Ārāmît) was the form of Middle Aramaic employed by writers in Lower Mesopotamia between the fourth and eleventh centuries. It is most commonly identified with the language of the Babylonian Talmud (which was completed in the seventh century), the Targum Onqelos, and of post-Talmudic (Gaonic) literature, which are the most important cultural products of Babylonian Jews. The most important epigraphic sources for the dialect are the hundreds of inscriptions on incantation bowls.

The rock inscriptions of the Grama Bay Albanian: Mbishkrimet shkëmbore në Gjirin e Gramës) is an archaeological site in Southwestern Albania, Vlorë County, in the Grama Bay located on the Ionian coast of the Karaburun Mountains, including roughly 1,500 rock inscriptions that date from the 3rd century BC to the 15th-16th centuries. The name of the bay originates from the Greek word γράμμα meaning 'letter'.

The little bay with difficult overland access but with abundant springs had always been a favorite stopping place and shelter for the ones sailing along the coast: mariners, soldiers, merchants and pirates. The city of Oricum, located 12 km to the north, was founded in the 7th century BC, and the inhabitants started to use the Grama Bay as a quarry in the 3rd century BC from where they could extract limestone of good quality. The first inscriptions carved into the eastern rock face of the bay were made by the quarry workers themselves. During the following 2,000 years further mariners made their signs on the rock which ended up in the former quarry covered by 1,500 inscriptions. Majority is written in Ancient Greek and Latin, but inscriptions in Messapian language as well as ones made by Byzantine Greeks or Ottoman Turks are also included. These typically give the name of the people and that of their vessels and often invoke the Dioscuri. Historical figures also showed up in the Grama Bay and put their marks on the rock, such as Pompey in 48 BC or John V Palaiologos in around 1369. The Roman statesman Sulla was actually never visiting the bay, but in 86 BC after defeating Mithridates VI of Pontus during the First Mithridatic War he ordered to commemorate his triumph with a new inscription made on the Grama Bay's rocks. The medieval inscriptions call upon the Lord for his help.

Vasil Nikolov Zlatarski (Bulgarian: Васил Николов Златарски; 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1866 – 15 December 1935) was a Bulgarian historian-medievalist, archaeologist, and epigraphist.