- Text, Layout, and Medium
- A cura di Davide Amendola, Cristina Carusi, Francesca Maltomini, Emilio Rosamilia
On the Format and Layout of Athenian Building Accounts (Again)
- Cristina Carusi
- © 2024 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9.04
Athenian building accounts inscribed on stone underwent a gradual evolution in classical Athens. The first preserved specimens, dating to the third quarter of the fifth century BCE, adopted a “list-like format,” with receipt and expenditure entries with their relevant monetary figures organized in multiple columns. In the last quarter of the same century, by contrast, they began to accommodate many more details, attaining a decidedly “narrative format” at the expense of the user-friendly layout chosen previously. This evolution, rather than being interpreted in light of the dichotomy between the symbolic and functional purpose of inscribed documents, should be attributed to a change in the ways in which the city chose to celebrate its building achievements. Whereas “list-like” accounts emphasized the financial means the city had deployed to realize its building projects, “narrative” accounts focused on describing how a building project was carried out, pointing less to the financial aspects and more to the deployment of the human and technical resources necessary to realize it. As regards the columnar format that features prominently in building accounts, at first glance it seems to recall the uses of writing on non-stone media. However, one should not assume a direct derivation of inscribed accounts from contemporary accounting documents written on perishable materials. In fact, the two-sub-column format with numerals on the left that characterizes earlier building accounts was originally and expressly designed for inscribing financial documents in which monetary figures were to occupy a prominent position. Notably, even later “narrative” accounts, in which entries proceed in a continuous-line format with numerals embedded in the text, did not abandon the columnar format, which remained a layout feature inextricably linked to this type of epigraphic document.
- Keywords:
- Athenian building accounts; functionalism vs. symbolism; accounting documents; columnar format; numerals.,
University of Parma, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-8694-3469
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Informazioni sul capitolo
Titolo del capitolo
On the Format and Layout of Athenian Building Accounts (Again)
Autori
Cristina Carusi
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9.04
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Informazioni bibliografiche
Titolo del libro
Text, Layout, and Medium
Sottotitolo del libro
Documents from the Greco-Roman World between Epigraphy and Papyrology
Curatori
Davide Amendola, Cristina Carusi, Francesca Maltomini, Emilio Rosamilia
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
426
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0455-2
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0456-9
Collana
Edizioni dell’Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli»
ISSN della collana
2533-2414
e-ISSN della collana
2612-7997