CREWS volume reviews

The CREWS project may have officially finished, but I hope its legacy lives on in our publications (not to mention the resources still hosted on the website). After a bit of delay because of the pandemic, reviews of CREWS volumes have recently started to emerge, which is very helpful in trying to understand the impact and ongoing usefulness of CREWS research. The two reviews I know of are the following:

Review of Natalia Elvira Astoreca, Early Greek Alphabetic Writing: A Linguistic Approach, reviewed by Dimitrios Meletis in The Classical ReviewHERE. Meletis speaks of the book’s ‘impressive linguistic analysis’ (particularly in chapters 4 and 5 focusing on vocalic and consonantal notation), and is struck by the grapholinguistic approach that ‘does no less than call for a paradigm shift in studying early Greek alphabetic writing – and convincingly so’.

Review of Philip J. Boyes, Script and Society: The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit, reviewed by Ola Wikander in Palestine Exploration QuarterlyHERE. Wikander speaks of the way in which the book offers ‘archaeological and artifact-centric perspectives often forgotten or at least underoperationalised by textual scholars in order to illustrate writing’, making it indispensable for linguists and other scholars of the Ugaritian textual corpus: ‘a highly illuminating book, putting questions to the Ugaritic material that are in many ways rather different than usually done’.

I’ll be sure to share further reviews as they come along, and for those that are not open access, you are welcome to get in touch for copies if you cannot access them.

Image from New York Metropolitan Museum, scribe statue of Haremhab