Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T22:57:16.651Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Education and Literacy in Ancient Italy: Evidence from the Dedications to the Goddess Reitia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2019

Katherine McDonald
Katherine McDonald*
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article discusses the votive dedications to the goddess Reitia at the sanctuary of Este-Baratella (Veneto) as evidence for the acquisition of literacy in Italy c. 350–150 b.c. These dedications, which take the form of bronze writing-tablets and styluses, are inscribed with Venetic dedicatory formulae, abecedaria and other writing exercises. This article shows how these texts function as writing exercises — some of the earliest evidence of elementary education methods in Italy. Many of the votives were dedicated by women, and this article argues that women were active participants in literacy and education in this period. It also sets the dedications in their Italian and Mediterranean context by comparing them to votive and funerary deposits of abecedaria from across Italy and the ancient world.

Keywords

VeneticReitiadedicationsvotivesliteracyeducationwomen
Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 109 , November 2019 , pp. 131 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Earlier versions of this paper were presented to research seminars at the Universities of Cambridge, Exeter and Newcastle in 2016 and 2017, at the conference ‘Parole per gli dèi’ at the Academia Belgica in May 2017 and at the British Epigraphy Society Autumn Colloquium in November 2018. I would like to thank these audiences for their comments and suggestions, particularly Daniele Maras and Philippa Steele. Patrick Clibbens, Philip Boyes, Emma-Jayne Graham, Liv Yarrow and Anna Judson also read the manuscript in its second and third incarnations and offered many helpful comments. Many thanks to the JRS readers, whose advice greatly improved this article and widened its scope. I would also like to thank the Museo Nazionale Atestino for permission to study and photograph the inscriptions discussed here. A large portion of this research was completed during a Rome Award at the British School at Rome in 2015, and I would like to thank the BSR for their generous support.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ET = G. Meiser and H. Rix, Etruskische Texte. Editio Minor, revised edn, Hamburg, 2014.Google Scholar
Ambrosini, L. 2000: ‘I pesi da telaio con iscrizioni etrusche’, Scienze dell'Antichità 10, 139–62.Google Scholar
Bagnasco Gianni, G. 2000: L'etrusco dalla A alla 8. L'acquisizione della scrittura da parte degli etruschi, Milan.Google Scholar
Bagnasco Gianni, G. 2005: ‘Iscrizioni con sillabe ripetute. Un inedito da Tarquinia’, ACME: Annali della Facoltà di Filosofia e Lettere dell'Università statale di Milano 58, 77–88.Google Scholar
Balista, C. and Ruta Serafini, A. 1992: ‘Este preromana. Nuovi dati sulle necropolis’, in Tosi 1992, 109–23.Google Scholar
Bats, M. 1988: ‘La logique de l’écriture d'une société à l'autre en Gaule méridionale protohistorique’, Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise 21, 121–48.Google Scholar
Beeler, M. S. 1949: The Venetic Language, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bloomer, W. M. 2011: The School of Rome: Latin Studies and the Origins of Liberal Education, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Bodel, J. 2009: ‘“Sacred dedications”: a problem of definitions’, in Bodel and Kajava 2009, 17–30.Google Scholar
Bodel, J. and Kajava, M. (eds) 2009: Dediche sacre nel mondo greco-romano. Diffusione, funzioni, tipologie, Rome.Google Scholar
Bonfante, G. and Bonfante, L. 2002: The Etruscan Language: An Introduction (2nd edn), Manchester and New York.Google Scholar
Bowman, A. K. and Woolf, G. 1994: Literacy and Power in the Ancient World, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bucking, S. 2006: ‘A Sahidic Coptic manuscript in the private collection of Lloyd E. Cotsen (P. Cotsen 1) and the limits of papyrological interpretation’, Journal of Coptic Studies 8, 55–78.Google Scholar
Bucking, S. 2012: ‘Towards an archaeology of bilingualism: on the study of Greek-Coptic education in late antique Egypt’, in Mullen and James 2012, 225–64.Google Scholar
Buffa, M. 1935: Nuova raccolta di iscrizioni etrusche, Florence.Google Scholar
Bundgård, J. 1965: ‘Why did the art of writing spread to the West? Reflexions on the alphabet of Marsiliana’, Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 3, 11–72.Google Scholar
Buonamici, G. 1932: Epigrafia etrusca, Florence.Google Scholar
Capuis, L. and Chieco Bianchi, A. M. 1992: ‘Este preromana. Vita e cultura’, in Tosi 1992, 41–108.Google Scholar
Clackson, J. 2012: ‘Language maintenance and language shift in the Mediterranean world during the Roman Empire’, in Mullen and James 2012, 36–57.Google Scholar
Conway, R. S. 1916: ‘Some votive offerings to the Venetic goddess Rehtia’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 46, 221–9.Google Scholar
Cornell, T. 1991: ‘The tyranny of the evidence: a discussion of the possible uses of literacy in Etruria and Latium in the archaic age’, in Humphrey, J. H. (ed.), Literacy in the Roman World, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 3, Ann Arbor, 7–33.Google Scholar
Crawford, M. H. 2011: Imagines Italicae: A Corpus of Italic Inscriptions (3 vols), London.Google Scholar
Cribiore, R. 1996: Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt, Atlanta.Google Scholar
Cribiore, R. 2001: Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, Princeton.Google Scholar
Cristofani, M. 1969: ‘Appunti di epigrafia etrusca arcaica’, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 38, 99–113.Google Scholar
Dana, M. 2009: ‘Alphabets et exercices scolaires dans deux cités du Pont ouest: Istros et Tyras’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 171, 71–82.Google Scholar
Dickey, E. 2012: The Colloquia of the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana. Vol. 1, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Dickey, E. 2015: The Colloquia of the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana. Vol. 2, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Dickey, E. 2016: Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks from the Ancient World, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Draycott, J. and Graham, E.-J. (eds) 2017: Bodies of Evidence: Ancient Anatomical Votives Past, Present and Future, Oxford and New York.Google Scholar
Ferrer i Jané, J. 2015: ‘L'escriptura ibèrica a la Cerdanya: els abecedaris rupestres’, ERA, Revista cerdana de recerca, 37–48.Google Scholar
Fogolari, G. and Prosdocimi, A. L. 1988: I Veneti antichi. Lingua e cultura, Padua.Google Scholar
Fournet, J.-L. 2000: ‘Au sujet du plus ancien chalinos scolaire: chalinoi et vers alphabétiques grecs’, Revue de Philologie 74, 61–82.Google Scholar
Frankfurter, D. 1994: ‘The magic of writing and the writing of magic: the power of the word in Egyptian and Greek traditions’, Helios 21, 189–221.Google Scholar
Frere, S. S., Hassall, M. W. C. and Tomlin, R. S. O. 1983: ‘Roman Britain in 1982’, Britannia 14, 279–356.Google Scholar
García y García, L. 2005: Pupils, Teachers and Schools in Pompeii: Childhood, Youth and Culture in the Roman Era (trans. Poli, A. M.), Rome.Google Scholar
Ghirardini, G. 1888a: ‘Este. Intorno alle antichità scoperte nel fondo Baratela’, Notizie degli scavi di antichità, 3–42.Google Scholar
Ghirardini, G. 1888b: ‘Este. Intorno alle antichità scoperte nel fondo Baratela. Parte II: Antichità figurate’, Notizie degli scavi di antichità, 72–127.Google Scholar
Glinister, F. 2006: ‘Reconsidering “religious Romanization”’, in Schultz, C. E. and Harvey, P. B. Jr (eds), Religion in Republican Italy, Cambridge, 10–33.Google Scholar
Gomes, M. V. 2013: ‘O abecedário rupestre, proto-histórico, do Vale da Casa (Vila Nova de Foz Côa)’, Revista da Faculdade de Letras. Ciências e Técnicas do Património 12, 69–85.Google Scholar
Gow, A. S. F. 1956: ‘Phanias: notes and queries’, Classical Quarterly 6, 231–6.Google Scholar
Graham, E.-J. 2014: ‘Infant votives and swaddling in Hellenistic Italy’, in Carroll, M. and Graham, E.-J. (eds), Infant Health and Death in Roman Italy and Beyond, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 96, Portsmouth, RI, 23–46.Google Scholar
Graham, E.-J. 2017: ‘Partible humans and permeable gods: anatomical votives and personhood in the sanctuaries of central Italy’, in Draycott and Graham 2017, 45–62.Google Scholar
Graham, E.-J. and Draycott, J. 2017: ‘Introduction: debating the anatomical votive’, in Draycott and Graham 2017, 1–19.Google Scholar
Guéraud, O. and Jouguet, P. 1938: Un livre d’écolier du IIIe siècle avant J-C, Cairo.Google Scholar
Haas, O. 1952: ‘Zur Deutung der venetischen Inschriften’, Die Sprache 2, 222–40.Google Scholar
Habinek, T. 2011: ‘Situating literacy at Rome’, in Johnson, W. A. and Parker, H. N. (eds), Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, Oxford, 114–40.Google Scholar
Harrauer, H. and Sijpesteijn, P. J. 1985: Neue Texte aus dem Antiken Unterricht, Vienna.Google Scholar
Harris, W. 1989: Ancient Literacy, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Hemelrijk, E. A. 1999: Matrona Docta: Educated Women in the Roman Élite from Cornelia to Julia Domna, London and New York.Google Scholar
Henrichs, A. 2003: ‘Writing religion: inscribed texts, ritual authority and the religious discourse of the polis’, in Yunis, H. (ed.), Written Texts and the Rise of Literate Culture in Ancient Greece, Cambridge, 38–58.Google Scholar
Horster, M. 2011: ‘Primary education’, in Peachin, M. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World, Oxford, 84–100.Google Scholar
Hughes, J. 2017: ‘“Souvenirs of the self”: personal belongings as votive offerings in ancient religion’, Religion in the Roman Empire 3, 181–201.Google Scholar
Johnson, W. A. 2011: ‘Teaching the children how to read: the syllabary’, Classical Journal 106, 445–63.Google Scholar
Joyal, M., McDougall, I. and Yardley, J. C. 2009: Greek and Roman Education: A Sourcebook, London and New York.Google Scholar
Keegan, P. 2014: Graffiti in Antiquity, London and New York.Google Scholar
Langdon, M. K. 1976: A Sanctuary of Zeus on Mount Hymettos, Hesperia Supplements 16, Athens.Google Scholar
Langslow, D. 2002: ‘Approaching bilingualism in corpus languages’, in Adams, J. N., Janse, M. and Swain, S. (eds), Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Word, Oxford, 23–51.Google Scholar
Langslow, D. 2012: ‘Integration, identity and language shift: strengths and weaknesses of the “linguistic” evidence’, in Roselaar, S. T. (ed.), Processes of Integration and Identity Formation in the Roman Republic, Leiden, 289–309.Google Scholar
Lejeune, M. 1952: ‘Problèmes de philologie vénète VIII. Les “tablettes alphabétiques” d'Este, technique orthographique et magie’, Revue de Philologie 26, 199–204.Google Scholar
Lejeune, M. 1971: ‘Sur l'enseignement de l’écriture et de l'orthographe vénètes à Este’, Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 66, 267–98.Google Scholar
Lejeune, M. 1974: Manuel de la langue vénète, Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Lomas, K. 2008: ‘Script obsolescence in ancient Italy: from pre-Roman to Roman writing’, in Baines, J., Bennet, J. and Houston, S. (eds), The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication, London, 109–38.Google Scholar
Lomas, K. 2009: ‘Gender identities and cultural identities in the pre-Roman Veneto’, in Herring, E. and Lomas, K. (eds), Gender Identities in Italy in the First Millennium BC, Oxford, 13–26.Google Scholar
Maggiani, A. 2002: ‘Luoghi di culto e divinità a Este’, in Serafini, A. Ruta (ed.), Este preromana. Una città e i suoi santuari, Treviso, 77–88.Google Scholar
Maras, D. F. 2012: ‘Interferenza e concorrenza di modelli alfabetici e sistemi scrittori nell'Etruria arcaica’, Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Antiquité 124, 331–44.Google Scholar
Maras, D. F. 2015: ‘Etruscan and Italic literacy and the case of Rome’, in Bloomer, W. M. (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Education, Chichester, 201–25.Google Scholar
Marinetti, A. 1990: ‘Le tavolette alfabetiche di Este’, in Pandolfini and Prosdocimi 1990, 95–142.Google Scholar
Marinetti, A. 1998: ‘Il venetico. Bilancio e prospettive’, in Marinetti, A., Vigolo, M. T. and Zamboni, A. (eds), Varietà e continuità nella storia linguistica del Veneto. Atti del convegno della Società italiana di glottologia, Padova-Venezia, 3–5 ottobre 1996, Padua, 49–99.Google Scholar
Marinetti, A. 1999: ‘Venetico 1976–1996. Acquisizioni e prospettive’, in Paoletti, O. (ed.), Protostoria e storia del ‘Venetorum Angulus’. Atti del XX convegno di studi etruschi ed italici, Pisa and Rome, 391–436.Google Scholar
Marinetti, A. 2004: ‘Venetico. Rassegna di nuove iscrizioni (Este, Altino, Auronzo, S. Vito, Asolo)’, Studi Etruschi 70, 389–408.Google Scholar
McDonald, K. 2015: Oscan in Southern Italy and Sicily: Evaluating Language Contact in a Fragmentary Corpus, Cambridge.Google Scholar
McDonald, K. forthcoming: ‘The dedications to Reitia and the epigraphic visibility of women in Este and the Veneto’, in Dupraz, E. and Estarán Tolosa, M. J. (eds), Parole per gli dèi. Dediche religiose in lingue epicoriche del Mediterraneo Occidentale, Geneva.Google Scholar
Milnor, K. 2014: Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii, Oxford and New York.Google Scholar
Morgan, T. 1998: Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Mullen, A. and James, P. (eds) 2012: Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman Worlds, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Pandolfini, M. and Prosdocimi, A. L. 1990: Alfabetari e insegnamento della scrittura in Etruria e nell'Italia antica, Florence.Google Scholar
Pascucci, P. 1990: I depositi votivi paleoveneti. Per un'archeologia del culto, Padua.Google Scholar
Pellegrini, G. B. and Prosdocimi, A. L. 1967: La lingua venetica (2 vols), Padua.Google Scholar
Perego, E. 2010: ‘Magic and ritual in Iron Age Veneto, Italy’, Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 20, 67–96.Google Scholar
Prosdocimi, A. L. 1983: ‘Puntuazione sillabica e insegnamento della scrittura nel venetico e nelle fonti etrusche’, AION. Annali dell'Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli, Sezione linguistica 5, 75–126.Google Scholar
Prosdocimi, A. L. 1990: ‘Insegnamento e apprendimento della scrittura nell'Italia antica’, in Pandolfini and Prosdocimi 1992, 157–298.Google Scholar
Rix, H. 1960: ‘Zu den venetischen Schrifttäfelchen’, Indogermanische Forschungen 65, 124–39.Google Scholar
Roth, U. 2011: ‘Textile production and gender in ancient Italy: the case of the “Oscan” loom weights’, Ostraka 20, 143–62.Google Scholar
Rüpke, J. 2009: ‘Dedications accompanied by inscriptions in the Roman Empire: functions, intentions, modes of communication’, in Bodel and Kajava 2009, 31–41.Google Scholar
Snodgrass, A. 1989: ‘The economics of dedication at Greek sanctuaries’, in Bartoloni, G., Colonna, G., Gotanelli, C. and Vivante, A. (eds), Atti del convegno internazionale ‘Anathema’. Regime delle offerte e vita dei santuari nel mediterraneo antico, Roma, 15–18 giugno 1989, Rome, 287–94.Google Scholar
Stoddart, S. and Whitley, J. 1988: ‘The social context of literacy in Archaic Greece and Etruria’, Antiquity 62, 761–72.Google Scholar
Tomlin, R. S. O. 2002: ‘Writing to the gods in Britain’, in Cooley, A. (ed.), Becoming Roman, Writing Latin? Literacy and Epigraphy in the Roman West, Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 48, Portsmouth, RI, 165–79.Google Scholar
Tosi, G. (ed.) 1992: Este antica. Dalla preistoria all'età romana, Este.Google Scholar
Turfa, J. M. 2006: ‘Votive offerings in Etruscan religion’, in Thomson de Grummond, N. and Simon, E. (eds), The Religion of the Etruscans, Austin, 90–115.Google Scholar
Várhelyi, Z. 1996: ‘The written word in Archaic Attica’, Klio 78, 28–52.Google Scholar
Wachter, R. 1986: ‘Die etruskische und venetische Silbenpunktierung’, Museum Helveticum 43, 111–26.Google Scholar
Wallace, R. 2008: Zikh Rasna: A Manual of the Etruscan Language and Inscriptions, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
West, W. C. 2015: ‘Learning the alphabet: abecedaria and the early schools in Greece’, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 55, 52–71.Google Scholar
Whatmough, J. 1922: ‘Rehtia, the Venetic goddess of healing’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 52, 212–29.Google Scholar
Woodard, R. D. 2014: The Textualization of the Greek Alphabet, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Zavaroni, A. 2008: ‘Sulla presunta equivalenza fra venetico “op voltio leno” e lat. “libens merito”’, Latomus 67, 619–26.Google Scholar