Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/23

Rh or baked clay, as in the case of the Cuneiform character. There was a preference for hard unpliable materials in classical antiquity just as there was a preference for parchment as a writing material all through the Middle Ages, both in Europe and Asia. As the harder materials fell into disuse, the character of course became more cursive, writings circulated more generally from hand to hand, and were multiplied by frequent copies not only to meet an increased demand, but because that which is written is more perishable than that which is graven; the stroke of the chisel is a more abiding record than the stroke of the pen.

In consequence of this difference in the writing material, the researches of the Palæographer of classical antiquity embrace a far wider field than those of the medieval Palæographer. It is in the marble and the granite, in the marketplaces, the temples, and the sepulchres of the ancients that we must search for their records; these were their libraries, their muniment rooms, their heralds' college. If Magna Charta had been ceded to the Roman plebs, instead of to the English nobles, it would not have been called Magna Charta, but Magna Tabula, or Magna Columna; most of the Diplomatic record of the ancients was a Lapidary record.

I have been as yet considering the written memorials of races only as they are evidence of the art of writing itself, but Archaeology has not only to study character and writing materials, but also to interpret more or less the meaning of the words written, and to inquire how far they have an historical value.

Now all written character, all literature, to use this word in its original sense, may be divided into two great classes,—the Composed and the Documentary.

By Composed Literature I mean history, poetry, oratory, philosophy, and such like mental products; by Documentary Literature I mean all writings which have no claim to rank as literary composition,—such as deeds, charters, registers, calendars, lists,—in a word, all those historical and literary materials, some of which are already incorporated in composed history and composed literature; some of which are stored up in national, ecclesiastical, municipal, or private archives; some of which yet remain in situ, associated with the architectural monuments and works of art on which they are inscribed, and some of which, uncared for or unknown,