Stefan Arteni

Writing Systems, Art, Communication

I

SolInvictus Press 2010

Early Christian funerary art from the Roman catacombs depicting the Chi-Roh
symbol, Christ figure and dove, 3rd -5th century

Funerary slab with monogram in place of a name and Chi-Roh symbol of

Christianity, Roman, first half of 4th century

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Collections of Marks and Ritual Mnemonic Notational Systems

A sign-system is non-universal. Attractor network models of associative memory

may explain the dynamics of pattern and structure recognition.
J.J.Hopfield and Igor Yevin

The purpose of cognitive archaeology is to consider how early humans managed

to formulate their various constructs of reality. It therefore deals with a great
variety of evidence and it draws its information from many disciplines.. The
neuropsychologist R. L. Gregory has suggested that over half the human cortex
is involved in vision. The cortex grew, initially, out of the need to process visual
information — Derek Hodgson speaks of a case of form (graphic marks)
following function (the neurophysical structure of the visual cortex). Derek
Hodgson continues: “Repetitive mark-making would, however, in itself, have
constituted a novelty in the face of the flux of nature…As a perceptual
phenomenon art is, then, an attempt to render permanent and tangible that which
was formally intangible and fleeting, the seeking of order in the midst of disorder,
the expression of the sense of pattern, harmony and symmetry synthesised from
the immediate, ambient confusion… The initial scratch marks made by early
humans can be interpreted as an extension of this quest, still mediated, but not
wholly bound to the brain, i.e. the beginning of a search for order and structure
as a reflection of the neurological patterns on which the human cortex had
previously depended for survival in the face of a hostile world”. [Derek Hodgson,
ART, PERCEPTION AND INFORMATION PROCESSING: AN EVOLUTIONARY
PERSPECTIVE,
http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/cognit/web/hodgson.html ]

According to William Calvin, these patterned scratchings [grammata] that forked

both into art and writing constitute a compelling indication of the need for syntax
[or morphosyntax, that is rules governing construction, that could be used for
recursive compositional constructs, that is a combinatorial (syntactic) structure
determined by the medium constraints and by the force of convention].

“…the actual production of iconographic forms becomes the cultural and

intentional creation of features prompting visual responses to a signifier; it
induces visual ambiguity intentionally. This definition of art differs significantly
from what is traditionally accepted, and it is crucial in effectively understanding
the nature and origins of iconographic art…symbolism based on iconicity is
cognitively much more rudimentary than a symbolism requiring the link between
referent and referrer to be negotiated culturally.”
[Robert Bednarik, Neurophysiology and paleoart, Semiotix course 2006,
Cognition and symbolism in human evolution,
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/cyber/rbednarik6.pdf ]

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“In entirely non-figurative arts as well as those that use highly ‘stylised’ versions
of iconicity it is impossible to know the referrer, unless one has direct access to
the cultural conventions in question. Moreover, in the last-named art form,
concepts or ideas involving no figuratively definable referents can readily be
‘depicted’. It is therefore clearly the most sophisticated art genre, and can
communicate unlimited numbers of ideas, in rather the same way as written
characters”.
[Robert Bednarik, Towards a theory of cognitive origins, Semiotix course 2006,
Cognition and symbolism in human evolution,
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/cyber/rbednarik7.pdf ]

“Signs of both lunar cycle and lunar zodiac might have also been utilized as
mnemonic and narrative devices for rituals with the accent placed on the full
moon, in order to take care of animals, crops and plant according to cycles of
cosmic rhythms of the moon although not in a calendrical way…Equally
important to the survival was the sense of identity. Translated into signs of writing
– as well as into ritual songs and dances – the information associated with the
sky reminded each generation of the traditional beliefs, taboos, and behavioral
codes that determined the community’s identity within the sky-Earth arena”.
[Marco Merlini, The Gradešnica script revisited,
http://arheologie.ulbsibiu.ro/publicatii/ats/ats5/2merlini.htm ]

“Since the earliest manifestations of symbolic activity in modern humans (Homo

sapiens sapiens) in the Upper Palaeolithic, there is evidence for two independent
cognitive procedures, for the production of representational images (naturalistic
pictures or sculptures) and of abstract signs. The use of signs and symbols is
attested for archaic humans (Homo neanderthalensis) and for Homo erectus
while art in naturalistic style is an innovation among modern humans. The
symbiotic interaction of the two symbolic capacities is illustrated for the visual
heritage of Palaeolithic cave paintings in Southwestern Europe, for rock
engravings in the Italian Alps (Val Camonica) and for the vivid use of signs and
symbols in Southeastern Europe during the Neolithic. Around 5500 BC, sign use
in Southeastern Europe reached a sophisticated stage of organization as to
produce the earliest writing system of mankind. Since abstractness is the main
theme in the visual heritage of the region, this script, not surprisingly, is
composed of predominantly abstract signs.” [Harald Haarmann, The challenge
of the abstract mind: symbols, signs and notational systems in European
prehistory, http://arheologija.ff.uni-lj.si/documenta/a32.html ]

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“The Balkan-Danube script was not developed for economic or administrative
reasons but for religious rituals which gradually became increasingly complex…
It combines written signs with sacred, geometric and abstract symbols.”
[Marco Merlini, Signs, inscriptions, organizing principles and messages
of the Danube script, http://www.prehistory.it/oldeuropeanscripti.htm ]

“The inscriptions of the proto-European script are often found completely

covering clay female figurines, votive offerings (sometimes ex-votos), libation
vases, miniature vessels, spindle whorls, seals, temple models and loom
weights, indicating they were developed in a religious context.” [Marco Merlini,
Inscriptions and messages of the Balkan-Danube script, a semiotic approach,
http://www.iatp.md/dava/Dava6/Merlini__6_/Merlini__6_1_/merlini__6_1_.ht
ml ]

“According to legend, Chinese characters were invented by Cangjie (c. 2650

BC), a bureaucrat under the legendary emperor Huangdi. The legend tells that
Cangjie was hunting on Mount Yangxu (today Shanxi) when he saw a tortoise
whose veins caught his curiosity. Inspired by the possibility of a logical relation of
those veins, he studied the animals of the world, the landscape of the earth, and
the stars in the sky, and invented a symbolic system called zi — Chinese
characters.”
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character ]

“Oracle bones are a type of artifact found in archaeological sites from the Shang
Dynasty in China. The site of Anyang had over 10,000 of these objects, primarily
ox shoulder blades and turtle shells carved with archaic forms of Chinese
characters, used for divination between the 16th and 11th century BC. The Late
Shang Dynasty Yinxu site also had an abundance of oracle bones.
Oracle bones were used to practice of a form of divination, fortune-telling, known
as pyro-osteomancy. Pyro-osteomancy is when seers tell the future based on the
cracks in an animal bone or turtle shell either in their natural state or after having
been burned. The cracks were then used to determine the future. The earliest
pyro-osteomancy in China included the bones of sheep, deer, cattle, and pigs, in
addition to turtle plastrons (shells)”. [K. Kris Hirst, Oracle Bones,
http://archaeology.about.com/od/oterms/g/oraclebones.htm ]

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“The intentions of those who created writing systems did not primarily lie in the
exact rendering of speech sounds but in the fixation of ideas and information of
which messages were composed. This intentional fixation of information for
reuse bears all the characteristics of what we understand as writing, regardless
of the missing connection with language”. [Harald Haarmann, The Danube
Script and other Ancient Writing Systems: A Typology of Distinctive Features,
The Journal of Archaeomythology, Volume 4, Number 1, Winter 2008]

Palaeolithic patterned scratchings [grammata] that forked both into painting and
writing

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 Gradešnica script

Pintadera, Vinca culture (Muzeul Banatului, Timisoara)

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Dispilio tablet, Dispilio-Kastoria, Greece

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 Schøyen Collection, MS 5237/2, Unidentified text, Iberian signs, Spain,
ca 4000-3800 BC

Schøyen Collection, MS 2787, Protohieroglyph of ship and oar, Egypt, Nagada II

period, 3600-3200 BC, black top jar, h.28 cm

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The name of one of the first two pharaohs of dynasty I, Schøyen Collection,
MS 200, Hor Aha of Upper Egypt, Abydos, Upper Egypt, 2955-2925 BC

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Autograph and self portrait of one of the artists who decorated the tombs in the
Valley of the Kings and Queens, Schøyen Collection, MS 1695, Sesh,
Hieroglyph of “Scribe”, Deir-el Medina, Western Thebes, 1307-1070 BC

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Limestone ostracon of an owl, drawing of the upper half of the hieroglyphic sign
"m", an owl, New Kingdom, possibly from Deir el-Medina, Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge

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Owl hieroglyph, British Museum, London

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Hieroglyphs, sarcophagus of Petosiris, Egypt, 330 BC

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Early Ptolemaic era hieroglyphs, Egypt

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Egyptian hieratic script

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Schøyen Collection, MS 3029, Gift from the high and mighty of Adab to the high
priestess, on the occasion of her election to the temple, Sumer, 26th century BC

Schøyen Collection, MS 3194, Labyrinth with entrances at the middle of opposite

sides, Babylonia, 2000-1700 BC

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Phaistos disc, Minoan pre-linear A hieroglyphs

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Schøyen Collection, MS 249, Unidentified Minoan text, Linear A script, Knossos,
Crete, 16th century BC

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 Crete, Linear A tablet

Tablet of Linear A Script from the palace of Zakros,

Sitia Archaeological Museum, Crete

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Tablet of Linear A Script from the palace of Zakros,
Sitia Archaeological Museum, Crete

Tablet of Linear A Script from the palace of Zakros,

Sitia Archaeological Museum, Crete

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Linear A tablet from Agia Triada. 15th century BC,
Iraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete, Greece

Mycenae, Linear B tablet

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Schøyen Collection, MS 3024/2, Character TIAN for “field”, a cross within a
square, inside a swastika, China, ca 2200-1800 BC

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 China, Jiahu script carved into tortoise shells. Dated to 6600 BC, some
archaeologists believe the markings to be a writing system related to the Oracle
bone script (from Wikipedia)

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Oracle Bone Inscription, China

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Shang Dynasty Calligraphy, China

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Qin-Han Dynasty Calligraphy, China

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Han Dynasty Seal Script Calligraphy, China

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Eastern-Han Dynasty Calligraphy, China

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Northern-Wei Dynasty Calligraphy, China

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Ts'uan Pao-tzu Stele Inscription, Chin Dynasty (265-420 AD)

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The history of the letter A (www.arch.mcgill.ca/.../pssolange/roman.htm )

Penteskouphi plaque, Greece

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Corinthian plaque

Greece, 420 BC

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 Mosaic, Kourion, Cyprus

Mosaic from Halicarnassus, The British Museum, London, United Kingdom

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Greek inscription: "This mosaic was made by Bishop Macarius, in the third year
of the indiction", 539 AD, Qasr, Libya

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Nilotic scene, Byzantine mosaic of the Eastern Basilica, 539-540 AD, Qasr Libya

Funerary mosaic, Tunisia

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Early Christian mosaic, Bardo museum, Tunis

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Early Christian mosaic, Bardo museum, Tunis

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Early Christian mosaic, Bardo museum, Tunis, 2nd-4th centuries

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“The tomb of Victoria”, Roman christian mosaic, Bardo Museum, Tunis,
4 th century AD

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Detail of the mosaic above, Bardo museum, Tunis

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Roman christian mosaic “of deacon Crescentius”, Bardo Museum, Tunis,
4 th century AD

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Byzantine mosaic, St Sophia, Istanbul

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Illuminated manuscript page, Armenia

Gospel of John, Armenia

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Byzantine zographer, 11th century

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 Byzantine zographer, 11th century

Agios Nikolaos church, Mystras, Greece

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Sümela monastery, Turkey, painted in the 15th -18th centuries (?)

Sct. Bendts kirke, Ringsted, Sjælland, Denmark

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Århus cathedral, Denmark, 1470-1520 (?)

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Århus cathedral, Denmark, 1470-1520 (?)

Århus cathedral, Denmark, 1470-1520 (?)

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 Schøyen Collection, MS 1750
BIBLE: GOSPELS WITH PROLOGUES BY THEOPHYLACT OF BULGARIA
MENOLOGION
SYNAXARION AND A PERICOPE TABLE
MS in Church Slavonic on paper, Monastery of Neamtu, Moldavia, ca. 1450, 266
ff. (-6), 32x22 cm, 2 columns, (26x15 cm), 22-26 lines in a elegant Cyrillic half-
uncial, by Gabriel Uric of Neamtu, 2-line initials in calligraphic ujaz, strips of
interlacing ornament in gold and colours at the incipits of the prologues, rubrics,
page-heading, sigla, marginal chapter numbers with gold, some also with red.

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Manner of Domenico Ghirlandaio, 15th century

Petruskerk, Zuidbroek, Groningen, Holland

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Zographer Toma from Suceava and his team, Dormition (Assumption) church,
Humor monastery, 16th century

Stroe from Targoviste zographer, Arnota monastery, Romania, 17th century

(pronaos retouched in the early 18th century by Ioanichie sin Preda zographer)

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Dretea wood church, Romania, 17th -18th centuries

Bilca wood church, Romania, 18th century

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St John the Baptist Church, Tolchkovo, Yaroslavl, Russia, 17th century

St John the Baptist Church, Tolchkovo, Yaroslavl, Russia, 17th century

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St John the Baptist Church, Tolchkovo, Yaroslavl, Russia, 17th century

St John the Baptist Church, Tolchkovo, Yaroslavl, Russia, 17th century

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WANG DUO (Ming Dynasty)

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FU SHAN (Qing Dynasty)

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FU SHAN (Qing Dynasty)

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FU SHAN (Qing Dynasty)

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Icon, 17th century, Stavropoleos collection, Bucharest, Romania

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Icon, 1756, Stavropoleos collection, Bucharest, Romania

Icon, 1756, Stavropoleos collection, Bucharest, Romania

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Kreţulescu church, Bucharest, Romania, 18th century

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Kreţulescu church, Bucharest, Romania, 18th century

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Greece, 18th century

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Russia, 19th century

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 Yanagisawa Kien, 18th century

Kameda Bosai, 18th -19th centuries

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HE SHAOJI (Qing Dynasty)

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JIN NONG (Qing Dynasty)

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ZHAO ZHIQIAN (Qing Dynasty)

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ZHANG YUZHAO (Qing Dynasty)

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YI BINGSHOU (Qing Dynasty)

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Wu Changshuo, 19th -20th centuries

Yu Youren, 19th -20th centuries

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Qi Baishi, 20th century

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Fortunate Depero, 20th century

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Enrico Prampolini, 20th century

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Gino Severini, 20th century

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Carlo Carra, 20th century

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Ardengo Soffici, 20th century

Mario Sironi, 20th century

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Juan Gris, 20th century

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“To get a more complete grasp of the mantric phenomenon, at least as far as
certain Asian traditions of thought are concerned, it is also necessary to take into
account another usually neglected aspect: the writing of mantras. At the
beginning writing, in accordance with mainstream Buddhist ideas of language,
was considered as a mere device to convey the meaning of Buddha's words.
This attitude changed around the seventh or eighth century with the development
of a systematic form of Tantric Buddhism for which the sound of esoteric
expressions was no longer sufficient: rituals also needed the original graphemes.
In China and especially in Japan the characters of the Indian writing called
siddham were used in various ways. Siddham refers to a gupta type of the
brahmi writing system, used in India between the Fourth and the Eighth century,
and now extant only in Japan. In this manner, siddham, earlier known only to the
few translator monks, became an extremely important subject of study and
practice for the Buddhist monks. The East Asian esoteric tradition created
practices integrating mantra recitation and siddham visualization.
Few scholars have been attracted by the fact that siddham characters,
interpreted as iconic signs, were used as the "body" of the absolute language
(and therefore) of the absolute reality of esoteric Buddhism.
The Chinese graphic system, and in particular its most ancient characters, was
considered as not just a transcription of oral language, but as a system for the
representation of reality, constituted by expressive forms in which sounds and
scripts are in perfect harmony. In this way, siddham characters acquired the
status of microcosms, of absolute entities, in accordance with their myths of
origin. Esoteric sources, in fact, consider siddham as absolute, unconditioned,
non-created entities. Other sources describe them as spontaneous forms which
originally manifested themselves in the sky. In such an absolutist conception of
writing, the influence of Taoist elements are also discernible, for instance, the
"heavenly talismans" (tianfu) and the "cloud-seals" (yunzhuan). Perhaps, in
relation to such myths on the origin of mantric language, Frits Staal suggests that
mantras may be sort of fossil vestiges of the process which led to the formation
of ordinary language, fragments of the most ancient protolinguistic expressions
(1989), ‘remnants of something that preceded language’ (1985:550)”.
[Fabio Rambelli , SRB Archives, Editorial: Sounds for Thought,
Volume 4 (2) of The Semiotic Review of Books,
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/srb/4-2edit.html ]

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 Jiun Onko, 1718-1804
[http://zenart.shambhala.com/ ]

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 Zenseki, date unknown
[http://zenart.shambhala.com/ ]

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 Koei, date unknown
[http://zenart.shambhala.com/ ]

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