Cities, Information, and the Epigraphic Habit: Re-evaluating the Links between the Numbers of Inscriptions and the Sizes of Sites - Dataset

Among classical scholars there is a widespread assumption that there is no relationship between the sizes of communities and their epigraphic output. In this article, I offer a new model, which suggests two hypotheses for how inscriptions increase with population, depending on whether they can be regarded as a form of infrastructure or a measure of wealth or disposable income. I show that, despite the variation between sites, there is nonetheless a consistent relationship between the numbers of inscriptions and the estimated populations of sites. The numbers of inscriptions increase slower than the estimated populations of sites, however, suggesting that they acted as a form of information infrastructure. This has important implications for our understanding of the mechanisms for transmitting information in ancient contexts, suggesting several avenues for future research.

古典学研究者中普遍存在一种预设：社群规模与其铭文产出之间不存在关联。本文提出一种全新模型，基于铭文可被归类为基础设施形式，抑或是财富与可支配收入的衡量指标这两种情况，给出了铭文数量随人口规模增长的两类假说。研究表明，尽管不同遗址间存在差异，但铭文数量与遗址估算人口之间始终存在稳定关联。然而，铭文数量的增长速度慢于遗址估算人口的增长速度，这说明铭文充当了一种信息基础设施的角色。该发现对于我们理解古代语境下的信息传播机制具有重要意义，同时也为未来研究指明了若干方向。