ABSTRACT
Inscriptions are artifacts, whether sculpted or painted, composed only of texts that feature juxtaposed letters or with both images and lines of writing. Indeed, among other advantages, these new editorial methods allow multiple images to be displayed in relation with the texts, offering the opportunity to reunite all components of the inscriptions in their analysis and presentation. Over the last 20 years, the EpiDoc schema derived from the Text Encoding Initiative has become the standard for editing epigraphic texts on the web. Nevertheless, it is important to refine this definition, which is relevant to all categories of writing, to better understand what differentiates an inscription from a simple text. In a few simple examples, Philippe Bruneau's paper shows how meaning arises at the intersection of all components, whether textual, graphic or iconographic, and also provides the most comprehensive theoretical modeling for the study of written artifacts from any period or civilization.
