INSCRIPTIONS (Lat. inscriptio, from in seriberc, to write upon, from in, in, upon + seri bcre, to write). The name applied to writings upon durable material, such as stone or bronze. Ordinarily such writings are engraved, but they may also be painted. The number and variety of the inscriptions of the past is very great, and the term is of course applied with equal correct ness to the records on gravestones or other mon uments of the present. The far greater use of inscriptions in ancient times, and the large va riety of subjects upon which they furnish in formation, have made epigraphy, or the study of this class of monuments, an important branch of the science of antiquity. For many peoples the inscriptions are almost the only source of our knowledge of their history, language, and customs. This is the case with Babylonia, Assyria, ancient Persia, and to a very great extent with Egypt; the Lyciam Phrygiamand Etruscan languages are known only through the records on the monu ments. and these arc only a few examples of peoples revealed to us by inscriptions. Even where an extensive literature has been preserved in other forms, as in the case of Greece and Home, the monumental records throw new light on the classic texts, and add numberless details. which enable its to fill out the picture of ancient life, of which the literature so often pre serves only the outline. Inscriptions in the widest sense include the picture-writings of the North American Indians, the hieroglyphics of Central America and Mexico, and all the other forms in which man has endeavored to preserve his records upon indestructible materials. In many of these eases, however, the content of the record is either unintelligible or unimportant, and the interest centres in the form. These sys tems are therefore more appropriately described tinder Warrtxu. In cases where the inscriptions are the chief or only source for the life and history of their makers, or are noteworthy for the kind of writing employed, they are naturally dis cussed in connection with the lands from which they come or the characters used. Consult, there fore, the articles ASSYRIA; BABYLONIA; CUNE IFORM INSCRIPTIONS; EGYPT; ETRURIA; IIIERO GLYPIIICS; HITTITES; .M1N.EANS; SAMEANs.
The most ancient inscriptions are those found in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and these coun tries have furnished by far the largest number of these records of Oriental history and civiliza tion; but in their form and contents they extend beyond the domain of epigraphy, and are more properly treated under the special titles just mentioned.
Under Semitic inscriptions should strictly be included any inscription composed in a Semitic language. For practical purposes, however, the term is usually limited to such inscriptions as are written in the systems of alphabetic writing developed by Semites, and these systems furnish a convenient basis of classification. Two great groups may thus be distinguished: The North. Semitic, employing an alphabet of which the Phoenician is the type, and the South-Semitic, whose alphabet is represented by the modern Abyssinian character (Amharic, Tigrifia). The 2Vorth-Scmitic group is divided into two principal sections : (1) The Phwnicio-Palcstinian, including Phoe nician, to which the Carthaginian, or Punic, both and new, belongs, Hebrew, Aloabitic. and Sa
maritan. (2) The Aramaic, which begins about the second century B.C. and later can be separated into Nabataean or Sinaitic, Palmyrene, Syriac, and Mandaean. Not all of these groups are of equal importance. for in some cases the scanty epigraphic material adds but little to what is known front the literature, while in general it may be said that only the early documents are of special interest either in language, contents or form.
Though the published Semitic inscriptions are numerous, the great mass are brief records front gravestones, or isolated names, or graffiti, such as cover the rocks of the Sinaitic peninsula. The immense variety that elmracterizes Greek and Latin epigraphy is lacking here, partly perhaps because so few sites have been systematically ex plored. Two of the most important North-Semi tic inscriptions, the 'Moabite Stone and the Si loam Inscription. are treated in separate articles. (See ...MOABITE STONE; SILoA.M.) The most im portant I'hmnician inscription is that on the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar. King of Sidon, now in the Louvre, which is probably from the end of the fourth century mu. Earlier hut shorter are the inscriptions of Eshmunazar's father, Tabnith. and of King Jechaumelech of Byblos, which may he as early as the fifth century B.C. The earliest writing of this group is probably on the frag ments of metal imps from Cyprus, which scent to he even earlier than the Moabite stone. and may perhaps belong in the tenth century B.C. An important Carthaginian document is the long in scription in Marseilles. containing regarding sacrifices. including the fees to he paid by the worshiper and the division of the victim with the priest. An important group is formed by the Aramaic inscriptions, now in Berlin, of Senjirli. in Northern Syria. some of which be long to the first half of the eighth century n.c., and throw an interesting light on the relations of these petty kings to Tiglath-pileser III. of Assyria, their suzerain. At Palmyra many in scriptions in the local alphabet have been found, for the most part mortuary, and dating from the first three centuries of our ere. l)f especial in terest is a long bilingual, in Greek and Pal myrene, of A.D. 137, containing the customs, duties mid tolls, which are recorded to obviate the frequent disputes between the caravans and the customhouse officials. Among the late in scriptions, especial interest attaches to a bi lingual, Syriac and Chinese, in Western China, relating to the work of Nestorian missionaries in the region, about 7S1 A.D. The North-Semitic inscriptions are best discussed, and the impor tant texts collected and illustrated in facsimile, in Lidzbarski, Handbuch der Nordscmilischen Epigraphik (Weimar. 1898), which also contains a very complete bibliography. The inscriptions are collected in the still incomplete corpus In script ion u m Seam it icaru m ( Paris, IS81 seq.), prepared under the direction of the French A cath'in ie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettrcs.